The unwillingness to forgive has long been an impediment to human progress, but nowadays it seems as if we’re accumulating unforgiven things in the individual body and in the body of humanity–of which we are all a part–faster than any other period of time in human history.
Scan the news and the social feeds of the average individual and you will see that most people feel entitled to accusation, but few avail themselves of forgiveness. The thought process goes something like: “If only I or we rid the world of ‘x,’ then the world (or more modestly, my little corner of the world) would be a better place.” Note that there is no mention or thought of forgiveness in this so-called “life” philosophy.
Where there is no forgiveness, death follows…always. That which is unforgiven remains as a cyst in the body of humanity. Such cysts are never benign; they are always malignant and the only way to remove them from the body (of the individual or the whole of humanity) is to forgive without reservation.
Until you forgive, you sustain–you give your “life blood”– to that which corrupts and crucifies the revelation in and through you of that which is whole, holy, and wholesome. This is the key to overcoming that which is eating away at the fabric of humanity.
Of all the shortcomings that disintegrate the body of humanity, none is more corrosive than the unwillingness to forgive. So, scan your world, take a deep and meaningful inventory in your heart of hearts, and forgive. Forgive as if your life depended upon it. No exceptions due to righteous indignation.
Forgive it all, now.
Here are a few other posts I’ve made along the way on the topic if you’d like to go deeper.
Gregory Hake 