It was necessary to insert that word negatively, because, of course, someone could have brought you a Publishers Clearing House check for $1,000,000.00 and you would have to point that out to me, right?
There are many positive scenarios. Perhaps your daughter and husband just announced they are having twins. Oops!! One baby. You jump up and down. Or, your husband received news that his promotion just came through and you can relax now. Or, even got a job after being laid off for so long.
Actually I am writing today about the things that throw us for a loop and bring on worry, dread, and anger. God is so awesome in how He walks through our life with us. When I started the project on Embracing Emotional Forgiveness, I had no idea of all the lessons I would learn putting this on paper.
Naturally I thought I knew it all. It has been a very irregular walk since last spring. But, nonetheless an important one. I wanted everyone to understand that at some points in our life from day one, we will most likely get hit in the stomach, lose our breath, and become numb over some incident brought on by an individual we know. In 32 years of counseling, I am pretty sure I have heard most of the stories and am not too blindsided anymore.
The things I have experienced and learned over this year, was that the book size and title needed to change. I feel bad I had not known to do that in the beginning, but at least I changed it. I learned more about how people close to us and also strangers can directly plunge our world into chaos without our permission. How about Kinder Hook? Boston Marathon victims. I was so impressed with so many stories, but in particular the lady who lost both her lower legs in a flash. She won't ever get up and walk home, go to the grocery store, go out to her garden, go to work, go to church the same way she did. We have family members and friends who make decisions regarding their life that directly impact us forever.
I was in the bathroom one Saturday morning and God gave me this thought. It just suddenly dropped into my mind. "Tell him to fix his future so it doesn't reflect his past!" FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE! It is not an easy thing to do. In fact for some it becomes impossible to them. The anger rolls over their emotions like a mountain of snow avalanche. You can't stop it, you can't breath, and you feel totally out of control.
Yet, God in His inerrant Word says in Isaiah 43: 18 and 19: "Do not (earnestly) remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." I want to believe that the lady in Boston will get new legs and walk. I pray she will give God the credit, and some day forgive her assailants. I pray that the him in my example will also let God render the curtain over his emotions and fix his future with forgiveness.
It is the hardest thing, I believe, that a human does in their walk in life. Forgiveness. I just had to write about it to help people see the freedom and peace in it. The piece that is missing for some is that they don't see God in their life. I pray that piece is not missing in you. All things are possible with Him Phil 4: 13.
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