REVEALING THE FACE OF GOD

(4) WHAT IS FORGIVENESS?

I used to believe forgiveness demanded prerequisites, such as the person needed to acknowledge their wrongdoing, truly feel sorry, ask to be forgiven, make amends to the victim and promise to never commit the sin again.

Let us surrender the myth that forgiveness requires a laundry list of requirements. Forgiveness has nothing to do with someone else. There is ‘no other’ to forgive. There is only you. Forgiveness is not paying a debt we believe has been incurred by another.

What is forgiveness to you?

Forgiveness is the restoration of our Divine vision so we may clearly see through the human masks of fear, through the imagined walls of terrifying separation and into each heart of Love, revealing the face of GOD, one by one, until we know, we are all one unlimited Love now!

I have been maintaining a belief, a judgment, that if I forgive someone whom I believe has truly hurt me, then I am giving this person a tremendous gift.

In your version of forgiveness, you have sentenced this other being to the wrath or perhaps the mercy of your judgment. Your ego is the collective judge, jury and executioner, who assesses the alleged crimes against you. What factors contribute to your ruling? How do you know if justice is being served? While the left side of your brain sifts through the evidence, the right is flooded with towering waves of fearful emotions emerging to the surface. Anger, depression, revenge and jealousy are competing for equal time, drowning any sense of objectivity. The wounded child speaks through the ruling adult. “You betrayed me. You deserve to be punished. Yet, because I have decided to take the higher road, I am going to grant you forgiveness.”

I hear myself in those words. Superficially, it sounds like the pretense of forgiveness, but the underlying tone is bellowing, “I will never forget the horrible things you did to me. Although you are not worthy, I forgive you because I deserve to be free of this relentless agony. You deserve to wallow in the memory of my suffering. Forgive, yes. Forget, never!”

This is the ego’s version of forgiveness. Love Divine says, “My child, you are dreaming wide awake and know not what you have done. I hear your call for help, your cry for compassion. I see beyond the illusion of your guilt into the Soul of your innocence. I join wholly with who you really are, my eternal sibling, GOD’s child of light. The all empowering truth of Love melts away the imaginary walls separating us. We are forever one!”

Why am I having such difficulty with this concept of forgiveness? You seem to be repeating the same simple messages. No matter what is presented, everything returns to Love.

All is Love! Discern all through Love. Ask yourself, “does this Spiritual idea resonate with what my unlimited Soul knows to be true, knows to be Love?” If the message you receive reverberates joyfully with your inner Spirit, if it makes your heart sing, then this is Love’s answer, my answer for you.

Being Love is our only reason for being here.

You might also meditate upon the question, “is this concept useful in my eternal mission of being Love (EMBL)?”

If it isn’t useful, why would I invest my time and energy into it? Then again, maybe I need to experience that which is not useful to fully appreciate that which is! For as I experience, I learn, I grow, and ultimately I remember who I truly am: Love. In this celestial paradigm, all is useful, everything is Love’s gift!