On Forgiveness

Colossians 3:13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

In the Bible, Paul has urged all who read (at least) Col. 3:13 to forgive. This instruction has no exceptions -- we are to forgive whatever offensive remarks, betraying deeds, maltreatment that we might have had to endure.

We are human, we sin, we have been there, done that. We are forgiven, so likewise we should return the good deed. We are to forgive.

There is no doubt on forgiveness. But I think that forgiveness does not imply forgetting. Forgiveness is a choice, by the Lord's grace, but forgetting is beyond my control. Our memory is a remarkable creation of God. We have no absolute control over it; the best we can do is to train (or enhance, whichever you prefer) it. But it is God's work of art.

God knows that sometimes we need to have photographic memory, but at other times we would rather the piece of memory has never come into the picture at all. So our memory can sustain information which we often recall, and it will slowly push to the back those snippets of our life that we don't choose to reminisce often.

We cannot wipe off a segment of our memory overnight. But when we forgive, we tend to think less about it. If you don't, then something is not quite right about the forgiving part. When we don't give much thought to it, our memory will do its job by allowing what used to be so intense to take its time to just fade away.

Many years later, one day, we may take a trip down memory lane. But the journey will only reveal images of those which we choose to think of often. The rest are just faded black-and-white history which we might smile and think, 'How silly that was!'.

So, in a way, to forgive is to forget. But I cannot do both at the same time. Forgiveness comes first, then forgetting will eventually takes its place.