FORGIVENESS

What could possibly be more identifiably connected to the purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ than the message of “forgiveness”?

First and foremost, Christians believe that his death was symbolically God’s example of providing a prophesied sacrificial lamb, and in this sacrifice God offers us all a pathway to absolution.

Absolution in the simplest terms is a release from guilt. Some may say, what guilt? And continue with asking who has the authority over another in the gesture of bestowing any such absolution?

Does an ecclesiastical hierarchy set on a throne (metaphorically speaking) and pass judgement by applying their bible study interpretive translation for dogma and doctrine?

Are we to just assume that the learnt of a given theology somehow inherit this responsibility for presiding over the laws of God in the self ordained role of leadership?

Is it also obligatory to believe that any such leadership miraculously becomes deputize with the authority to transfer God’s authority to them to forgive the sins of mankind?

Additionally, what constitutes a sin and what about forgiveness?

In order to answer such questions, it requires looking a lot deeper into an ecclesiastical declaration for the definition of forgiveness and sins but, I’m no theologian.

Thus, absent that mindfulness or full of mindlessness (whichever best suit the subject), I have gravitated toward my understanding for absolution that I believe most could agree. And this is that mankind has shown all throughout history to have a great potential for developing heart disease!

No…not the coronary type but the spiritual variety called “larceny of the heart”…LOL!

You see, I believe that everyone can get the message about what Jesus was representing and that message is not just exclusive to Christians, although being committed to a Christian faith can help to get your mind around it. You see there is a subtopic message that remains obscure in the sacrificial action taken by God?

Lets imagine a what if? What if, the world never received the words from God’s sacrificial lamb? What I mean by this is what if, we had never been offered an exemplary model for how God’s forgiveness was even possible?

In such a scenario, we may have never come to know what is being reflected in the mirror!

You see I believe that FORGIVENESS is anchored in our very own individual DNA. But unfortunately our mindfulness can too often override those genetics in making our free choices.

It apparently lays dormant in our subliminal mind until we can internally relax the rhetorical cross examination that plays out when choosing to justify otherwise…hum?

Just stop and think about that for a few extra seconds! Isn’t the act of FORGIVENESS really just a reflection in a metaphorical mirror staring right back at us?

Isn’t that act a symbolic jester of our very own desire to be forgiven. Is anyone who walks the earth perfect and abstained from being found guilty of their very own transgressions? I don’t mean guilty in a court of law, what I mean is guilty in the solace and fleeting tranquility that is being sought after in one’s very own mind.

Who in their right mind, when poised to look deep into that Blue Yonder’s metaphorical mirror is truly comfortable with who is being so proudly displayed for all the world to see?

Or are we a bit squeamish about the mindfulness that results from the teeter toddler intersections of pivot for all our decisions throughout the course of an entire lifetime?

In our steadfast convictions of others doesn’t it really only offer an unrefined version of our soulful character’s unwillingness to drop that stone?

For after all, if we can’t forgive ourselves then how can we ever forgive others, correct? It all starts with a willingness to release our own prejudice and convictions and set down that stone thus, realizing that no one is without sin!

It was Christ saying unto them in John 7:53-8:11 “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

It goes on to say in John 7:53-8:11 “ 9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Thus, as Christians or for that matter anyone who chooses to look deeper into that message, it offers us a few bread crumbs along our path in life.

It was only when the Scribes and Pharisees stepped back away from their own convictions that they saw the fallibility in those convictions that the reflection made them squeamish. Keeping in mind that, they also felt quite justified in condemning the woman to death for the accusation of adultery, which of course was only until they took a moment to examine their very own conscience, hum?

This is my point and quite literally the CRUX of the matter! It is our choice to either show a wiliness to examine our very own conscience or by the Latin definition of the word “crux” to use; the wooden instrument of execution, on which criminals are to be impaled or hanged” and in particular “a cross”.

Or…

We can employ FORGIVENESS as an affidavit that acts as a statement in our defense. We’re all guilty (and God knows this very well) of falling short in attempting to represent ourselves authentically.

By refusing to forgive, what we are choosing instead is the equivalent of ignoring that reflection in the mirror. It’s a conscious choice that exemplifies something other than our loving nature and rather than representing our best example by inviting FORGIVENESS into our hearts, we shun it and refuse to let God’s love shine through us!

As Christians, this can be identified with as the larceny in our hearts that we’ve inherited. The contingencies in making a “free choice” can’t be fully evaluated in a nano-second, just look at the example from Adam and Eve’s original sin!

The bottom line is, the spark of a though happens; between the junction of two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter. This separation is referred to as the “synapse” and that’s where our minds start the process of making a “free choice”.

This all starts with your mindset! It is where one takes the liberty for making good or bad choices while looking at others. The nano-second is the time that’s necessary for allowing our thoughts to travel the distance between a good or bad representation.

It’s the point that separates our decision making process. It’s the location where we either detach ourselves from the circumstantial and hearsay evidence that is being presented in the state’s prosecution (your intellectual ego) or we assume that role of judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one simultaneously

It’s our individual and exclusive choice and from there…it requires you to apply your learnt understandings for what you’ve convinced yourself into believing by telling yourself that these are the facts of the matter (even knowing that these are merely sponsored adulterated versions of the matter) about someone else’s guilt or innocence.

You see the hypocrisy in such conjectures about such truth rest in the inferior substances that gets added between our very own two ears. And it is from this that one’s very own prejudice gets ushered down the aisle way of an imaginary courtroom and given a seat in the jury box.

The only difference is that in that jury box, its only one single juror who of course is absent the benefit from deliberating or being swayed with the opinions from others.

As the sole member of the jury, we get to hear our very own exclusive summation that swaddles our too often over confidence for what our ego convinces us into believing! Unwilling to recognize that, it’s our very own ego’s need to feed our confidence by affording us self righteous indignation!

And there you have, judge, jury and executioner! This decision (our free choice) is quite literally a self proclamation of self-incrimination for our very own soul.

Such decisions are deliberated over the time that too often only spans a nano-second, and where does this take place, you guessed it…right between our very own two ears, WOW!

No need for any cross examination of the real facts of the matter, for after all just like the Scribes and Pharisees we can choose to go with our gut inclination that unilaterally justifies the administering of a death sentence for just punishment.

Oh, it may not actually result in putting a person to death, it may just involve putting a relationship to death by cutting off someone from participating in your life, why? Simply because you’ve chosen to believe a half truth or even less about someone…hum?

Whatever the case may be the truth be known, you’ll own it! You’ll be the one with that stone in your hand and you’ll be the one that threw it! Nobody made you do it, you convinced yourself that you were justified in the character assignation of another.

In the conviction and unwillingness to turn the other cheek and exhibit a capacity for FORGIVENESS you’ll be simultaneously providing testimony in your very own words for the weighted worth of your very own soul!

You see this is the message from Jesus Christ when he asked the Scribes and Pharisees to examine their very own conscience. What he implored them to do was to first review their very own transgressions and forgive themselves!

Only when viewing their reflection in the mirror and releasing the fallibility of the very own egos, could they then find room for humility.

After putting their very own thought processes on trial they then could go on to apply wisdom from their intellect and acquit the woman.

Thus, what Jesus Christ has provided us from the gift of redemption is in fact a path for discovering how to forgive ourselves! Only from there can we fully appreciate our responsibilities for unconditionally forgiving others and only then can we begin our personal journey in discovering our truest and greatest potential.

If we want to obtain wisdom from intellect and if we want to be a better person then, we must invite the light of God to shine in partnership with us. We must take responsibility for authentically representing ourselves by letting that loving light act as a beacon. We can shine a light or stumble in the darkness, it’s our fee choice but, we can’t say that we weren’t shown the way.

In Jesus Christ’s dying words just moments before the end of his very own personal journey on earth he never lost sight of the prerequisite for entering God the father’s kingdom: Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Or…as my own earthy father would say from time to time…regarding our obligation to be forgiving;

”They are to be pitied more than scorned”

Writing with the Veiled…