70x7=4giveness

By now you have guessed what I am about to ramble on about. I am speaking of God's favorite equation. It is actually ironic when you multiply the number above and receive 490 as a quotient...then realise that that is not many more days than a full year. It makes me know that someone CAN hurt you 365 days (and change) and you may come to expire the "legal limitation" of forgiveness...(well perhaps not in ancient times when you didn't live so long I guess!)

Peter asks Jesus today, "Lord, how many times must I forgive? Seven times?" Obviously, Simon-Peter, leaning toward the optimistic and generous view of forgiveness.....

Jesus' reply..."Seven times Seventy Peter!" Well... who would know that multiplication was so present in ancient Hebrew times?? (indeed applicable to fishes and loaves !)...
But really..seriously... the answer...a Jesus sarcasm if you will... please Peter..."7x70!!!"

Have you ever really struggled with forgiveness? Really? I have. 110%. (or 1x110) I have any way you look at it. And the outcome is still the same regardless if the answer is 490 or 110. It is still hard. And it is still necessary. For growth anyhow...

I have been struggling as to how to teach forgiveness to my students. it is a hard concept to teach young minds. They are bent on either "due justice" or should just plain forgive, no questions ever asked... hmm.??? To forgive is to go "downstream." To resist..."upstream."

Just like the fish in the river and most especially as I used today as my example of opposite polar repelling magnets. When one forces resistance you can feel the energy repelling. You don't have to "invent" a reason you can feel the the very real energy of oppositely forced resisting each other in ordinary magnets. upstream. When you hold 2 opposing magnets side by each the energy feels so off and so negative...much like our fear to forgive. When we resist forgiveness of any kind our energy is shifted. It doesn't flow nice and smoothly. It bumps along and feels awkward. It resists and repels. These feelings do not make us feel good. As good, universal energy in science we want the "click" the "snap" as we hear and feel the two energies collide into one another and stick.
We also must be aware of this in forgiveness, In realizing that letting go of our hurts and wounds is part of that magnetic release of freedom. The letting go is what sets us free..as they say. It allows good downstream energy, non-resistant energy, to flow in it's place. That is what feels right in the now. Listening to source/God in us.
I thought of a situation today very close, near and dear to me, in the last several days in preparing for this talk. It involved a love affair.... (ut, oh)! It involved a man in my life whom I became "close" to during an awkward, lost, and sad part of my life. During a time of heartache and rejection. He did wonderful things for me. He did things that "he didn't even do"... He made me feel alive again and made me willing to place some faith in not only myself but in the God-source. He made me question my willingness to really have faith in another. And want it.

I live pretty far away from this individual. And yet he lives "near by" alot. He taught the teacher about learning how to take the lesson and walk away with the assignment...study it, but really in fact, learn it. He taught me to forgive. he taught me to forgive and accept the other person in my life 7x70...like God instructs us. That is the truth of acceptance and love. It taught me to forgive him when he needed to go and get what was right for him...it taught me alot.

Thru his rejection of me I realised that it is not about me. it is not personal. But the reality was is that I had already learned this lesson several months ago. The lesson is in self-love and appreciation. It is not until we forgive our own "junk" and love ourselves that our doors swing wide open for the 7x70 math equation to happen.

The love who lives far away once said to me, " I am not sure if we have that rarefied air that is needed to call it , what it is? "... and my response... "well rarefied air obviously requires some light, cumulus, fluffy cloud cover."...I know that anyone who will forever require my forgiveness will need stormy atmospheric pressure in order in order for me to feel what true barometric pressure can do to ones' soul. Who can sustain the storms of life? Forgiveness occurs in the clean up of post-traumatic weather patterns.

I am all about flowing downstream, going with the storms, and riding out the rough weather.
That is the answer to the puzzle without jamming my pieces into spaces that don't quite fit just cause I want them too.

God quite often finds the peace you seek in the imperfect part of forgiveness. Forgive and heal. Move on and live to your fullest. Live in the moments that are real and present. Survive in the moments that shape you. Know when to throw in the towel. Love another when you can and don't look back. That is forgiveness. Truly. Love One Another as I have Loved you.

Dawn M. Grinnell, Director of Formation and EDS