«Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you» (Ephesians 4:31, 32).
Forgiving means freeing up space in the heart. I am going through a stage of many changes, uncertainty, and pain. A chapter of my life is closing abruptly, without my being able to avoid it. In the midst of this crisis, I feel that God is calling me to let go and make space for the new. «How can I make emotional space for what will come?» I asked God a few days ago. Then a message began to emerge, repeating itself in the books I read, the videos I watched, and social media messages: forgiving is freeing up space in the heart.
Years ago, we drove back after a family vacation on the beach. Moving along the road, we began to get a strange smell; a smell impossible to ignore, fetid and foul. After a little investigation, we discovered that the conch we had found on the beach, and which we had brought as a souvenir, was not as uninhabited as we had thought. There was definitely something rotting inside it! We immediately opened the window and threw it out. Continuing a journey of about six hours with that stinking smell would have been torture. Forgiveness is similar to our road adventure: it does not imply that we set no limits, or that we do not react to unjust situations; it means we’re not going to bear a grudge for the rest of our lives. We’re not going to pack a rotten conch in the suitcase of our souls. Forgiving, at the stage I find myself, means letting go of the mistakes of the past (mine and others) and throwing them out the window to make room for something new and better.
In her book Bittersweet, Shauna Niequist commented that after fighting the same fights and repeating the same arguments for several months, she and her husband decided to forgive each other. During a trip to Indiana, they gave up their resentments, turned the page, opened the window, and threw the stinking conch out. «The absence of all the things we left there has created space for new things, good things, new patterns to build, new moments of warmth and connection.» Forgiving is freeing up space in the heart.
Dear Lord, I want to free up space in my heart for what’s to come.
I don’t want to hold on to grudges which brings a rotten situation, victimhood, and bitterness. Today, by Your grace, I choose to forgive.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Pérez & Angelica Cuate.
