"Bearing-the-Cost...also known as Forgiveness..."

Forgiveness is both the easiest and the most difficult thing a human being is called to do. It requires, empathy, understanding, and a willingness to put past hurt behind you. It insists on moving forward with an ever-present desire to love and serve others.

"My name is Bearing-the-Cost, but some call me Forgiveness."

Forgiveness calls for a love that transcends rationality. As 2 Corinthians would say, it requires a love that is not quick to anger, nor rude, neither self-serving, nor impatient... but rather this sort of love keeps no record of wrongs. And the fact of that matter is, in our world today, love rarely exists without these negative traits present.

Those whom we love the most are often the people who hurts us most frequently. And most of the time, the ways that we are hurt feel unforgettable at the time. To put that hurt behind us is like asking us to do the impossible.

The endless list of wrongs against us sting. The record of wrongs could go on for pages, in some cases, for days, or even years. As those wrongs are continually remembered, they dig within us an empty hole only to be filled with deep-seated resentment and bitterness for those whom we are called to love.

Forgiveness is perhaps the hardest thing a human being is ever called to do.

But forgiveness can also be very simple. Saying those three words [I Forgive You] can be as easy as saying hello. Those three words roll off your tongue as easy as a blue bird sings. But really meaning it, truly forgetting what's behind and persevering forward, is a lot easier said than done.

But what is it about genuine forgiveness that is so difficult? To start, it requires humility, and a recognition of our place in the world.

How prideful it is if we cannot forgive our neighbor for their wrongs against us, when the Lord of heaven and earth forgave us for every transgression we will commit, have committed, and are presently committing. How can we expect perfection from our brother or sister in Christ, when we come nowhere near perfection ourselves?

Christ commands us in 2 Corinthians 2:7-8 "... to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore to reaffirm your love for him."

Why is forgiveness so vital to the Christian walk? I believe that Hannah Hurnard answers it best through an excerpt from her book Hinds Feet on High Places:


"At that moment the sun touched the blood-red petals [of the flower] so that they shone more vividly than ever, and a little whisper rustled from the leaves.


"My name is Bearing-the-Cost, but some call me Forgiveness."


 Then Much-Afraid recalled the words of the Shepherd, "On the way up the precipice you will discover the next letter in the alphabet of Love. Begin to practice it at once."


She gazed at the little flower and said again, "Why call you that?"


Once more, a little whispering laugh passed through the leaves, and she thought she heard the [flower say], 


"I was separated from all my companions, exiled from home, carried here and imprisoned in this rock. It was not my choice, but the work of others who, when they had dropped me here, went away and left me to bear the results of what they had done. I have borne and have not fainted: I have not ceased to love, and Love helped me push through the crack in the rock until I could look right out onto my Love the sun himself. See now! There is nothing whatever between my Love and my heart, nothing around me to distract me from him. He shines upon me and makes me to rejoice and has atoned to me for all that was taken from me and done against me. There is no flower in all the world more blessed and more satisfied than I, for I look up to him as a weaned child, and say, 'Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire but thee."

Because Christ died for us, we are called, just like the blood-red flower, to be filled with joy by nothing other than our Savior. The desires of our heart should be to diligently serve Him, because He bore the cost, because He exemplifies forgiveness, we as image-bearers are called to do the same!

Completed by Him and obedient to His will for us we will love. We will Bear-the Cost, we will Forgive!