Today’s post is dedicated to thoughts about the power and freedom of forgiveness. They were prompted while watching television news the day after Christmas.

December 26, 2021, I watched reports that Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had died at 90 years of age. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate helped end apartheid—a terrible system of racial segregation and discrimination—in South Africa.

My husband and I were privileged to visit the beautiful nation of South Africa in the late 1990’s. The cultural immersion/mission trip was important in my faith journey. Since learning more about the South African religious leader’s story following his death, I haven’t been able to shake thoughts about forgiveness, including the examination of my own heart for pockets of unforgiveness.

Tutu was an inspirational orator, who spoke often about the power of forgiveness. He passed along truths such as:

Forgiveness is nothing less than the way we heal the world. We heal the world by healing each and every one of our hearts. The process is simple, but it is not easy.[i]

Recently, I finished listening to a novel which took place during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. It was both heartbreaking and hopeful, brutal, and beautiful. This novel was particularly interesting since my father was part of a regiment of paratroopers who liberated a French city from German occupation near the end of WW II.

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who survived the horrors of imprisonment in a Nazi prison camp. Reading Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, during a painful period in my life was pivotal in my decision to choose forgiveness instead of bitterness. This amazing woman said,

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.[ii]

Almost every Christian will agree forgiveness is a crucial tenet of their faith. After all, Jesus had some pretty powerful instructions about forgiveness, such as in his Sermon on the Mount:

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part. (Matthew 6:15 MSG)

Like Archbishop Tutu said, “… it is not easy.” Forgiveness, I’ve learned, begins with a choice, and then becomes a process. The deeper the wound, the longer it may take to experiencing freedom of forgiveness.

Sometimes a person is able—or is gifted supernaturally with grace—to immediately and completely forgive even a horrific injustice. It has been my experience, however, that forgiving fully is more often like peeling back an onion—one ring of hurt and resentment at a time.

I’ll close my thoughts today with words from the venerable Reverend Billy Graham, who said,

Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful words in the human vocabulary. How much pain and unhappy consequences could be avoided if we all learned the meaning of this word.[iii]

If you are struggling with forgiveness, I hope these words and quotes will encourage you today,