For your consideration……
Today’s message has come up often for me off and on for the last few months but it is the first time it has come up in meditation for HOPEs Rising. I shouldn’t be surprised. It came up in discussion when I was on retreat last weekend. I guess this is its time. It is about forgiveness but forgiveness on a whole new level. You’ll see what I mean.
We would all say that we know what forgiveness is. Probably most of us would say we are pretty good at it. We know that the ugliness of grudges rubs at our soul. So we have confrontation and anger and we make up and forgive. Sometimes we forget. Sometimes not. But we let go of that anger that eats away at us. Life goes on….for the most part.
However, many of us have experienced things that seem unforgivable. We have had to separate ourselves from the event and person(s) involved. They are big live changing events. They shaped the course of our lives. In fact, we celebrate that we were able to break away and start down a new healthier path. Quite often the euphoria of this breaking free disguises the fact that we never forgave. It disguises the fact that we still have that rubbing on our soul.
We are asked to consider any book or movie. There is always an antagonist and protagonist. Without them there would be no story or lessons.
So it is with our life. We were born to the life we were meant to live. Without the protagonist(s), we would have no story or way to learn our life lessons. Now take a step farther and think for a moment. When God was laying out the plan for our life and he needed this protagonist, someone stepped up to be the bad guy or girl. Someone made the ultimate sacrifice and said I will be the bad guy. Do we really think they stood in front of God and said, “I’m a bad person without HOPE of changing. I’d like to do this job.” Do we really think God would allow it? Or might the scenario be something more to the effect. “I love this person so much, I will be her protagonist.” or “I will be the protagonist as a way to learn my own life lessons.”
I don’t think for a moment this is an easy message. I struggle myself with forgiving my step-father and I can hear many saying they are mad at God himself. What is the saying? “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Yeah, it probably isn’t going to happen all at once. But if we can begin to just consider today’s message, it is a beginning. We are just asked to begin.
That is the HOPE. And so it is.
Bit by bit, piece by piece, HOPE by HOPE action steps anyone can take…..
-Meditate/pray…..let the wounds bubble up and take a look at them.
-Drink lots of water.
-Get outdoors and take in at least 10 deep breaths.
-Have some fun. Laugh out loud.
What made me smile yesterday……
-Sunshine.
-A funny funny email from Alex. She had a great birthday.
-A day off.
-A great Suzy Bogguss concert at The Ark.
Love, Blessings and Gratitude,
Rev. Chris
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