CEREBRAL’S CONTENTS

After being badly and deeply hurt by someone very dear to us…other people around us usually say that it is the Christian-way to forgive the sin committed and the person who wronged us and just move on, that’s the ideal.  But in reality if we get into new arguments some of us become more historical than hysterical.  Yap!  You red it right, we become HISTORICAL…we tend to remember the past and drags up everything.  As C.S. Lewis (of the renowned The Chronicles of Narnia) said “To forgive for the moment is not difficult, but to go on forgiving, to forgive the same offense every time it recurs to the memory -that’s the real tussle.”…I cannot speak for everybody ‘though but only for myself…and it’s true for me.  It’s easy to say ‘I FORGIVE YOU’ but still dwell on the painful past…well, maybe until the day I wake up and everything’s seems fine again…I once red that time heals clean wounds and soiled wounds fester and infect (-Mark McMinn).  As the Holy Bible says in Luke 17:3-4…‘If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ’I repent’ forgive him.’   But the questions are…what if he’s not asking for forgiveness?  Can you just simply forgive him?  They say that forgiveness is something you must earn and forgiveness must come from those who have been wronged.  I red from one booklet that we must identify what has happened and try to answer these four questions: 1)  How serious was the offense? , 2)  How raw is the wound? ,  3)  How close is the person? and  4)  How significant is the relationship to me? .  Forgiveness must not be given for a wrong reason…not even for our desire of quick closure.  As for me, it’s a case to case basis for we must not be too judgemental if others cannot easily forgive especially if we haven’t experienced yet what he went through.  But it’s good for our health if we don’t have too many hang-ups in life.  I can say ‘though that forgiving and forgetting are entirely two different things…for I may forget to remember and remember to forget…or not.