Forgiveness: One Man's Journey

This article was originally published in the Franklin News-Post.

Over the past couple of months, I have spent time in thought and prayer about the essence of our ministry, My Brothers’ Crossing. Who do we seek to serve?  What is it that we try to do through our ministry?  Certainly through it all, we want to be a part of building God’s Kingdom.  We desire to point people to a relationship with Jesus, the Christ.  How are we doing this and what is at the core of our message?  It is all rooted in forgiveness.  I am going to focus my next several columns on forgiveness.  What does the Bible say about it?  How can it be applied in our lives?  How can we achieve it?


As the calendar flips to a new year, many of us resolve to be better. Better parents.  Better employees.  Better Christians.  We resolve to improve areas in our life.  Less debt.  Improved health.  Less clutter.  For some, we are seeking to improve a condition in our life while we are hanging onto a bitterness that poisons our heart and spirit.  We may be suffering with an unforgiving spirit.


It is often said, “I can forgive, but I will never forget.” Others might opine that “to forgive is setting yourself up to be hurt again.”  I hear what you are saying.  I have been there and said some of the very things myself.  Part of the difficulty I experienced on this very subject was I had a very difficult time understanding how I could be forgiven.  For me, that was at the foundation of it all.  How can any of us earnestly move in forgiveness if we harbor a thought process that we cannot be forgiven.


The essence of our Christian faith is one rooted in love and forgiveness. Probably the most often referenced or quoted scripture in the history of the Bible is John 3:16.  The King James Version (KJV) reads, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Out of God’s love for each one of us, He sent His Son to live as man on this earth.  The end result of His time on this earth would be as a sacrifice for the sin of every person.  Culminating with His resurrection into heaven.  Pretty amazing story.


The basis of our move in forgiveness is accepting the fact that Jesus died on the cross out of God’s love for you and me.  His death, burial, and resurrection paid the price for our sins.  He paid the price for every mistake that you and I have ever made or will ever make.  All that each of us has to do is confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, according to Romans 10:9 (KJV) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”


That begins us on our path of this Christian faith.  It puts us on our path with a relationship with Jesus.  In this, we are accepting of the forgiveness that God is extending to us through His Son.


In 2009, I was continuing in treatment for issues relating to my mental health.  I had a lot of bitterness in my heart.  I was hanging onto a lot of anger and hate that was poisoning my spirit.  I was being investigated by law enforcement for issues relating to theft and embezzlement.  I had reached a crisis point in dealing with issues of sexual molestation that had happened to me as a child.  I was at a breaking point.  I had told the counselor that I was meeting with that this was my last chance to get this right.  My 30-year battle was going to come to an end one way or the other.  In a move that I did not completely understand or anticipate, I ended up laying down all my burdens at the cross.  I accepted forgiveness.  I extended forgiveness to the man that had molested me.  I was also cleared of any wrongdoing in the police investigation.


To be continued…