We are all on a lifelong journey and the core of its meaning, the terrible demand of its centrality is forgiving and being forgiven. By that rocky and formidable climb--the sweat of forgiveness--we can peak the mountain of human suffering and gaze down on the meaning of our own history.
Offenses are a life-long challenge for everyone, but they are also opportunities; the opportunity to identify with the forgiveness that took place on the cross for us through Christ’s sacrificial death, the opportunity to extend grace and mercy that is unmerited and undeserved (is there any other kind?), an opportunity for the Life of Jesus to be revealed in us, and, perhaps, the opportunity to agree with God that love really does cover a multitude of sins.
All this is well and good, but when your feelings are hitting the ceiling and you believe an injustice has been served, there is no harder work in life than to forgive, and yet, it is not a work, it is a gift, a grace. Forgiveness is a gift that God has given us, and it is a gift that we can extend to others, in order that we might continue to walk in the freedom of that gift.
Only by forgiving will we comprehend the depth and magnitude of what Jesus did as an innocent who died for the guilty, He who bore the shame for the shameful and did the unthinkable for a corrupted and depraved race. God forgave man, but we struggle and do all we can to avoid forgiving each other.