Day 16: Angry Words

Here is another one of my favorite songs from Willy Porter.  This one is equally rich with carefully written lyrics and powerful ideas about love and forgiveness.  Yesterday I had talked about God's forgiveness and how it gives us a clean slate - completely renews us.  Because we are His children, and are called to live in His likeness, we are also called to forgive in His likeness.

I know that I am in forgiveness debt - both ways.  I've got a lot of forgiving to do and I am hoping that there is still forgiveness coming my way.  The advice about forgiveness that Jesus gives us in the Bible is this: "I tell you not 7 times, but 77 times." (Matthew 18:22).  Upon first glance at this verse, it makes me think that we are called to flood people with forgiveness.  I think that is true - forgiveness should be in abundance.  But I also think that Jesus is saying this - forgive from a place of sincerity, and do it wholeheartedly, get to the point where you can give forgiveness upwards of 77 times.

Willy's song is a good reminder that we are on no timeline for forgiveness.  That is not to say that we should hold on to anger for a long time - that becomes self-destructive.  One of the lines from Angry Words says this:
I have cursed your name a thousand times or more
Your photograph lies deep at the bottom of my drawer
But when I looked at it this morning, I had not angry words to say

I think to forgive, we have to get to the point where we run out of angry words - get to the point where we can set them aside.  Forgiveness is a change within the giver.  We often talk about forgiving and forgetting.  Forgetting can be the hard part.  And maybe sometimes it is alright not to forget - not to necessarily dwell on something - but to learn from what it was that we are giving forgiveness for.  I think forgiveness can be coupled with letting go.   

Forgive and let go.  Forgive when you are ready to forgive. Forgive when it comes from a place of honesty and truthfullness.  Forgive in abundance.  Forgive and have no more angry words to say.  

~SP