Unforgiveness is a Short Leash

Read Luke 23:32-34
"Father forgive them for they know not what they do." vs. 34

Unforgiveness is a leash with a very short chain. 
When we refuse to forgive we bind ourselves to the sin of another. Someone injures us physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually and immediately we are shackled to that injury.  A portion of our past is overshadowed by the offense, our present is determined by the offense, and our future is limited because of the offense. There are moments when we attempt to ignore it, but just about the time you think you've gotten beyond it, you feel the yank of the leash and you are back in the mess.

All the more frustrating is the truth that often the one who has hurt you has moved on.  

Rarely do they lose much sleep. They bust into our lives like a bull in a china shop, shatter our well being, and then they ride off without even looking back. So there we are trapped in the shards of glass, left trying to piece together the mess. They have crippled us and skip off without so much as a limp.

Unforgiveness never leaves the mess behind. It returns over and over again. 

We retell the same story, highlighting the ways we've been betrayed, abused, deceived, and wounded. We construct conversations in our heads that will never come to pass. We look at every possible relationship through the lens of our injury. We build walls around ourselves. We end up guarding our broken glass, refusing the help of anyone that might want to come by and give us a hand cleaning things up. There is just no getting beyond our pain when we fail to forgive.

Forgiveness, however, is the key to those shackles. It is the unbinding of our lives from where we've been and what we've been through. 

When we forgive, we let go of someone else's sin so that we can move forward into the life that God has for us. When we forgive, the story of our lives is no longer limited to one chapter, instead it opens up chapters that have yet to be written. Our past is no longer defined by the wounds, but by the grace of God that brought us through our wounds. The present is no longer determined by the injury but by the grace of God that renews us each and every day and uses us and all we've been through for the benefit of someone else. The future is no longer limited by the offense. Now God has opened up the future, to experience life beyond the binding, beyond the china shop. It is a life filled with the possibility of new things, new relationships, and new days. 

It is a life no longer predictably pulled back into the mess.