Each year WordPress provides me with an annual report of my blogging activity for the past year. Included in the top five posts of 2012 was an article titled Forgiveness that I wrote for my church newsletter and was the second thing I posted when I started this blog in September 2009. I realized that the subject of forgiveness is timeless and so I decided to write more posts on that topic in 2013. I am starting with this poem about how forgiveness leads to freedom from despair.
Forgiveness Set Me Free to Love
Anger tethered me to the past
holding on strong, holding me back
imprisoned in a dungeon of my own making
Deceived into believing
the walls had been built by another
solid walls I could not escape
Blame fostered thoughts of revenge
of justice for the transgressor
as the Accuser spurred me on
The future seemed a blur
of decades in darkness and woe
with no hope of joy or love
Then through tiny cracks
in the walls of my misery
a light shone, beckoning me escape
The light whispered in the darkness
Forgive and let go
Leave justice to Me
It seemed too simple
and yet to forgive was impossible
without the light to show the way
I could bear the darkness no more
the anger had made me weary
the hatred was draining all life
Trusting the light
I chose to forgive, even the unforgivable
I clung to love instead of hatred
Like the walls of Jericho
the prison of my despair
crumbled and fell at His word
Forgiveness set me free
to live and to love in peace
with hope for my future in view
As this poem began to form in my mind, I thought of the families of the 20 children who were killed in Newtown, Connecticut. These children are now in heaven with Jesus and have no need of lessons on forgiveness. But the families left behind to mourn their loss will need to learn to forgive the troubled young man who perpetrated the evil that took their children away from them.
The natural reaction will be anger and hatred, but unless those feelings give way to forgiveness these families will be trapped in a dungeon of despair. They will need the light and love of God to free them. My prayer for them is that they will be able to trust the Light of Christ to tear down the walls of anger and to ensure true justice prevails.
6/28/14 Update: Shared for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets Pub.