“When you begin a great work you can’t expect to finish it all at once; therefore, you and your brothers press on and let nothing discourage you until you have entirely finished what you have begun.” - Teedyuschung, DELAWARE
Forgiveness Sets Us Free
“Forgiving is its own reward. We start to find peace within ourselves. When we are free of guilt, shame, and resentment, our minds can be still.” - Living Clean, Chapter 7, “Love”
All things have their seasons. All thoughts are real. We must think to cause action and each action creates results. Big visions require many thoughts. It takes a series of thoughts to create a series of actions. A series of actions creates a series of results. These results are what makes vision become real. If we are here to serve the Creator then we can expect to be accomplishing big visions. How do we do this? One step at a time.
Self-righteous indignation used to be its own reward. We were uplifted by our intolerance of other points of view. Mad rage was addictive. No one was going to stop us from reaping its choice benefits: isolating ourselves from others, a free pass to gossip, fortifying our side against the person who wronged us–and, of course, a thousand more reasons to get high. Through the process of recovery, we can let go of reacting to every injustice we experience (or think we do). That’s a bit of relief right there. Beyond that, we seek to forgive and do the work required to let go of resentments. The rewards are far more satisfying and long lasting. We actively try to love others instead–or at least try to understand them. And a lot can be said for off-loading the resentments we’ve lugged around forever. There’s so much freedom in that. There’s lightness and even some ease in walking through life.
Who in my life have I forgiven or at least started to–and what has that been like? How might my life be different if I continue down this path?
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