Forgiveness is not always as easy as we preach it. Even priests who emphasis on it daily sometimes find it difficult to forgive those who hurt them, especially those who do it intentionally or consistently.
I'm someone who's quick to forgive, but there have been times when forgiveness looked difficult for me. Some years ago, I was accused of theft by someone I worked for. He didn't give me a chance to prove my innocence. He took me to the police station to be arrested. Of course, they started torturing me without hearing my own side of the story.
If you know anything about the Nigerian police, then you'll understand this story better. They really do not care to know if you're guilty or not, all that matters is the person who has more money. My boss was rich and I wasn't. They only heard his own side of the story and never gave me a listening ear. I was held custody by the police for three days. It looked like I'll never get justice until my church intervened. The police decided to hear my story when the church took up the case. They investigated and found out that I was innocent, then they freed me.
I was released from the police custody, but nobody cared about apologizing for character defamation. I was traumatized. I never believed such a thing would ever happen to me. I was hurt and dehumanized. I remember how I cried bitterly that day. Even today as I write this, a few tears dropped.
I thought I was never going to forgive. I always wished someone richer than my boss would do same thing to him. I just wanted him to pay dearly for what he did to me. In my heart, I kept wishing him evil. I never knew that despite the fact that he did me wrong, I was doing myself more harm by wasting my mental energy on negative thoughts.
All the while I was wishing him evil, nothing bad happened to him. But I was very unproductive all through that period. My Mind was occupied by pains and grudges. My healing only began when I started reading books about the power of positive thinking. I made up my mind to forgive. I forgave him and started praying for him. I prayed for good things to happen to him. The prayers I made for him, came back to me. Good things started coming my way.
Conclusion
Sometimes, forgiveness might be one of the most difficult task. However, we have to bear it in mind that when we forgive, we are not doing those who hurt us a favour. We are actually doing it for our own good.
Unforgiveness drains your mental energy faster than you'll ever imagine. It causes mental illness that sometimes results in physical sickness. Don't add to your pains by refusing to forgive.
There's no wrong that cannot be forgiven. You can choose to stand in your own way by dwelling in unforgiveness or you can choose to have a healthy and productive state of mind by forgiving and moving on. The choice is yours. You have the power to forgive. Use that power wisely.
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