Forgiveness

I blogged about this girl who sent me nasty text messages in my cellphone a couple months ago... here and here.

Well, I asked her to tell me what I did to upset her a lot of times. She refused. She wasn't being fair to me. She even got to the point of being verbally abusive in her text messages. My only demand was for her to spell my offense out. She sent me a thousand scathing words but never told me what I did wrong. My carnal desire was revenge. Kind of you-hurt-me-i-will-hurt-you thing. But in my heart of heart, I knew it was not right. I prayed and God changed the attitude in my heart. A compassion for her has started to fill me. I felt sorry that she was being eaten up by her bitterness. I know how it is to be filled with bitterness. I prayed for her. Her next hurtful text messages didn't hurt anymore after the prayer. I stopped demanding that she explains how I hurt her because I felt like it just made her angrier. I stopped demanding that she be fair with me... it was just not possible that time. God's message to me was clear, "I know you are offended and hurt, but I want you to show one more act of kindness." I did... I told her to give me one more chance. I asked her to forgive me of whatever I did wrong. But she refused. Well, I did what I needed to do and it was quite liberating.

Then, we met at a Christmas party. Oh, how uncomfortable that was to arrive at a party and see her. Well, I approached her and looked straight at her eyes. She got up from her chair, opened her arms and gave me a big hug... with her eyes starting to get wet with tears and said, "I'm sorry." I was touched. I think I just needed that... no more no less! No explanations needed. I forgave her!