Holding Onto Pain

    Holding on to pain, sounds like a really stupid thing to do, and yet we do it
all the time. Jesus gave us many lessons on holding onto pain, yet most of us
don't think about it that way. When we refuse to forgive, we are holding onto
pain. Some of us even hoard our pain, as a badge of courage for all the world
to see.
    Jesus, within the model prayer, gave us the principles of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is an all or nothing proposition. If we forgive those that have hurt
us, our pain starts to go away, because us forgiving others allows God to forgive
us. God helps to ease our pain from wrong doing.
    On the other hand, if we refuse to forgive others, God refuses to forgive us.
That is why an unforgiving heart is so tormented. That two edged knife of us
refusing to forgive, and us not being forgiven, just keeps getting twisted up
inside of us, inflicting more and more pain. Add to that the knife of others
that we have refused to forgive, and the agony of our un-forgiveing heart is
multiplied.
    Either we can be sadistic and enjoy the pain, or we can set ourselves free
and let the pain go away with forgiveness.
    One of our primary examples of forgiveness is Our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Jesus forgave his captures before he hung on the cross, the agony had
already begun, but Jesus asked for the forgiveness of all involved in His death
hours before He died. Forgive early and often, that is our lesson.
    Steven is another example of the act of forgiveness. Steven had just angered
the Sanhedrin with the truth of Jewish history. They had hauled him outside the
city gates and thrown him in a pit to be stoned. As the stones are already hailing
down on him, he asks God to forgive those involved.
    We need to not hold on to our pain, but to let it go. Physical pain is a part of
this earthly life. As we age, our physical pain from the deterioration of our bodies
happens. But that is not an excuse to hold onto the emotional pain and suffering
that comes from an un-forgiveing heart.
    Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to forgive others. The sooner the better
for us and them. Forgive others, so that you can also be forgiven.

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