Why Forgiveness Is Hard?

Since I can remember, I've heard many people tell me, "if somebody hurts you, you've got to let it go, pray for them, and move on." Well, to quote a "true and faithful saying" in American culture, this process is easier said than done. The amount of b.s. going on in the world and the level of people's foolish actions towards others are becoming the breeding ground for cold hearts. Not the type of cold heart that will go out and hurt other people but will do whatever in this life to never feel again. Never trust again. Never love "everyone" with open arms again. A lot of times, the wound is so deep, forgiveness is hard. In American Christian culture, a lot of people are lying to other people saying that "if God forgave you, you ought to forgive others." Wrong, dead wrong. In the Bible and in other cultures, God sometimes lost his cool when people were just screwing up and had no sorrow about it. Not saying God is like us but as I write this blog, I see where we, well I, get my short temper from (of course, when dealing with sociopaths and idiots who love to screw people). Over the past weekend while hanging with "My Honey" and friends in "Chi-Town", I got a chance to really confront these ideologies, which clearly doesn't work for me. I'm sorry, this is not the time or place in my life to put on "super intelligent and meta-physical (the other phrase for spirituality)" fronts to appease desire others want for my life. I can honestly say, forgiveness is hard, it's brutal, and it's an everyday thing. Some people super "spiritualize" Jesus' words to Peter when he asked, "Say man, how many times do I need to forgive this ----- (you fill in the blank)?" Jesus says, " Say man, 70 times 70." What did he mean by that? Every time you want to jump in the car, load up your desert eagle, and find that person that did you wrong with a bullet readily available, you may want to think about the consequences of revenge. Now, I do believe in getting revenge but as the old school crew love to say, "it's what you do it's how you do it" (ok, that's a line from Bahamadia, so work with me, work with me, my friends). What I get from this conversation is that every time those thoughts come up, the anger, the rage, the frustration, the perplexity of combined emotions, we've got to start the process of forgiveness. For some, it only takes a second. For others, years. I don't care what any preacher, monk, politician, or musical artist has to say, forgiveness is hard. Seeing those who hurt you still going on with their lives, still "jerking people", still living the same prettied up evil lives, stirs anger and unforgiveness. Every time your mind goes back to that time when you were hurt, there it is. Despite popular belief, this is going to happen until the day you die. I "receive that." My only thing is that we shouldn't live our lives in unforgiveness. I believe forgiveness is a hard road that requires the will to do it and making the time to get to that place. Now, let me say something else before I close this one out. This doesn't mean we shouldn't confront those who've done us wrong. That's condoning somebody's behavior. Well, I believe that it's for me tonite, my friends.

Til next time. "Trying To Make A Dollar Out Of 15 Cents" Overton...