I just read a really helpful, really practical blog post by Donald Miller on forgiveness and recommend that you click this link and read it too.I wrote about forgiveness a while back after having just felt the power of this mighty and God-given relational healer. Donald's post made me think of it and I was glad to go back and read it again. And then I came across my favorite part of The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis that paints a lonely picture of what our lives look like if we were to never use this healing power in our messy, human, hurting relationships.
When I read and reread these posts I was thinking that I'm actually in a season right now where I am not harboring anything. And it feels so good. But then I remembered yesterday. I was on the phone with a friend and something was said that felt like a slap. It wasn't meant to hurt, but in an instant it sucked the energy out of the conversation and I became short and clipped and ready to get off the phone. So I ended the conversation, but not before I let my change of temperature be very known.
I hung up, brooded for a while, felt every muscle in my body tense and then did something very, very rare. I picked up the phone and hit redial. And I named the entire thing. "Hey, I want to apologize because I just got short with you. When you said x, I felt...because... But then I got rude and impatient with you and that wasn't fair." The friend quickly replied, "Oh I know. The second I said it I knew it was heard wrong. I am so glad you called back." And we each forgave the other, me for what was said, she for how I treated her after it was said.
I hung up and my muscles relaxed and all I could hear, ringing in my ears was "And the truth shall set you free." It did. It always does.
