Here it is: we are commanded to forgive.

The nice part of forgiveness, as hard as it is for most of us, is that it is the only way to make the pain go away.

In a Start Trek episode (the original) Scotty once said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”  With forgiveness, the sin that is done against us is the first time that someone hurts us. After that, as we recall it and the pain comes back, that is not the sin of the person who did it to us- that is our sin of unforgiveness.

Sin against me once, shame on you. Let me continue to relive the sin and rehearse the anger and pain of it, over and over- shame on me!

You want to get rid of the pain? You want to be free of the shame, frustration and anger of being sinned against? Then do as the Lord requires: release it to Him. Forgive the person, pray for the person (that helps, actually, a lot to be able to forgive) and earn a blessing for doing what God requires.

It’s true, that old saw- To err is human; to forgive, Divine.  God says we should forgive, and when we do, it makes the hurt go away.