Recently I heard a preacher talk about forgiveness and the power of releasing grudges, hatred, etc. This preacher was the founder of XXXchurch (www.xxxchurch.com), an organization that is focused on evangelizing to those within the pornography industry, and helping those with pornography addictions.
Based on your definition of “porn,” I don’t think I am an addict. This said, I was a little bit reserved in listening to the message but he spoke from Luke (The Prodigal Son) and related it to all of us.
If you don’t know the story, a son tells his father he wants his inheritance now, wastes it on a life of debauchery, and “comes to his sense.” He returns only to find a father joyous of his arrival. A party with a big feast ensues when the older brother, who has been loyally working in the fields comes home at the end of the day.
Now here is where the preacher focused his lesson. So many of us can relate to the older brother. The one that immediately says “that is not fair.” “What about me?” “Where is my party or reward for doing what is right?”
We judge others not on what they have, more so on what we do not have. Or, we tend to look at what we want instead of what we were blessed with. This outlook misses the greater lesson. The younger son was dead, away from the family and it is a time of rejoice now that he has “come to his sense” and back from wicked ways.
I never saw this point of view before so it was an eye-opener.
I went home and wrote a letter. One I probably will never mail. Not sure I need to. But it was to a person that I had allowed to get me upset. It was a letter of forgiveness. All these years, even though I can quote you conversations where I was wronged, I had enabled my frustration turn to hate towards this person. Evil things, name calling, public BS that was so uncalled for, but I took it as “he is wrong, I am right.”
After writing this letter, almost immediately, a burden was released from within. Instead of rejoicing in what I had, I was focusing on someone who did me wrong.
Why is it, that we can so easily be like the faithful brother and say “what is in it for me?” We forget, everything we have. The grass is greener…the neighbor bought a new(er) car…[that person] has a new hairdo or nails, how come I don’t? What do we have that we overlook?
Maybe it is athletic abilities? Academic savvy and on the Dean’s list? A loving parent? A respectful child? Shoes on our feet? A job?
There are so many blessing we fail to count, so as I realized this message was releasing me of transgressions, and making me a better me, I took time to make those blessings count. What a relief!?!
TheM5s 