Forgiveness as journey

This morning I was praying the Lord's Prayer and made a connection with forgiveness that was new. I had always read the part about forgiveness as a formula, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us." It went like this, "I will forgive others, because that is how You have acted toward me." With the louder subtext being, "If you want forgiveness you had better forgive!"

As I was praying about it, the Lord was saying, "You can't participate in something you are unfamiliar with. If you understand forgiveness as it manifests from you to others, you will be awed as it is erupting between me and you." It was as if words like forgiveness, repentance, grace, love, were not capable of being contained in a single instance or mapped out with perfection. They were relational elements from God to us, us to others, and as our capacities and appreciation grows, the paths and understandings do as well.

The message this morning was that it was impossible to live the forgiveness of God in my life if my life was not one of forgiveness. Even a small attitude change or intentional release of forgiveness in my heart opened realities that couldn't have been explored just moments before. Clarity and understanding of past forgiveness from the Lord was better. It was not a carrot/stick approach, it was an existential reality. The possibilities of forgiveness only come by actively participating in it.