Centrifuge 2011 (Part 2)

Another day/topic at camp that really hit home with me was "connecting to those that hurt us." This is a big deal for a lot of people. Many times we hold the anger inside and it turns to bitterness and hate. But that's not what we're supposed to do. God tells us that we need to forgive.

A few months ago (I think it was in March), I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Winter Jam. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a $10-at-the-door concert with lots of Christian artists and a speaker. This year, one of the artists was Chris August. He's a little newer to Christian music, but he has some awesome songs. (You might be familiar with the song, "Starry Night." Yep, that's him!) One of his songs he sang at the concert is called "7 x 70." It's all about the hurts he experienced as a child and forgiving those who hurt him, and it is based off of Matthew 18:21-22...

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

These couple of verses have become some of my favorites within the last few months. It's so convicting to have Jesus saying we shouldn't be limiting our forgiveness to a certain number of times (Jesus doesn't mean to only forgive people 77 times...He's just showing us that we should continually be forgiving people). Believe me...I know how hard it seems. I have been hurt in the past numerous times by the same person and it is a constant struggle to forgive them.

This was also one of our key passages at camp one day, and my leader mentioned that you have to make a conscious decision every single day to forgive people. That's something I have been learning a lot this year. It's something that doesn't always come really easily. But God can definitely soften your heart and help you with forgiving others.

Annie ♥