How To Put Yourself in Prison

What happens when anger gets the best of us?  When pain nestles itself deep into our heart?  When its staying power starts to wear us down?  When bitterness begins to settle in?  When it finds great company in feelings of resentment?  When the heart becomes hard?  When we become unaware of our own grief?

Is this how you respond when you encounter tragedy?  When your heart is broken does it harden?

The sad reality is that some people allow tragedy to lead them to prison.  When the hurt never finds a place to heal, it leads us straight to the prison cell.  We become chained to our own pain.  We become enslaved by our own bitterness.  We become deceived by our own resentment.  We become isolated in our own holding cell of emotions. 

We are in prison and we don’t even know it. 

But it is forgiveness that frees us from the chains of bondage.  As Desmond Tutu writes, "There is no future without forgiveness."  Jesus calls us to offer the same portion of forgiveness to others that he has allotted to each of us. 

It was the unforgiving man in Matthew 18 that saw forgiveness as one sided.  He warmly welcomed it and begged for it from his master, but from his own friend he demanded payment. 

Where are you withholding forgiveness today?  Is it in a small squabble with a friend?  Is it in a long drawn out resentment that has been brewing in your heart for years? 

Why not release yourself from prison today by going to them and seeking forgiveness?  If God were as stingy as humankind in the way that we offer forgiveness, where would we be today?

Thanks be to God for his loving mercy!  It is new each and every morning!  May it be the same for us as we love our neighbors as we love ourselves.