Science fascinates my son. I’ve seen this passion in Christian since he was a child. In fact, during his pursuit of this passion, we’ve had many experiments go spectacularly wrong in our kitchen. One such experiment involved adding a small amount of one seemingly innocuous liquid to another.
“Watch this, Mom!” he said with the intensity of a young Einstein. “As the liquids meet, they’ll bubble and turn into a new color.”
Well, they met—and bubble would not quite describe what they did that day. What looked like hot-pink lava exploded out of the beaker from his Young Scientist Kit and all over the kitchen table.
“That did a lot more than I expected,” he calmly said, master of the understatement.
Forgiveness is like that powerful concoction. When we begin to grasp the power of dragging our will into line with the will of God and choosing to forgive, a lot more will happen than we expect.
We live in a world where terrible things happen to good people. I read your letters, Facebook posts, and Twitter messages every day, and every day my heart breaks a little.
The woman whose husband walks out on her
The man who is skipped over for the promised promotion
The so-called friend who lies about you and damages your reputation
The child who blames the divorce on a parent who didn’t want it either
The list is endless.
We live in a very unfair world, so what are we to do? Well, I’ve come to understand two important things about forgiveness as I’ve studied God’s Word. First, forgiveness is not a suggestion; it’s a command. Second, it seems to me that forgiveness is God’s secret weapon. Forgiveness doesn’t minimize the pain, it doesn’t say that what happened to you or me is okay, and it doesn’t mean we have to let it happen to us again. No! What forgiveness does is either keep us from picking up a burden of anger, resentment, and bitterness—or free us from that burden if we are already carrying it. When by God’s grace we forgive, we leave that weight at the foot of the cross.
Sound good? So where do we start? We start wherever we are right now. We ask the Holy Spirit to bring to mind any wounds we have buried deep, and when He does, we lay those—as well as the more obvious wrongs done against us that we need to forgive—at the foot of Jesus’ cross. I also find it helpful to write down the names of people I need to forgive and burn that piece of paper. You can do this over and over and over if you need to. A lot more will happen than you thought.
Fair doesn’t live in this world, but Jesus does.
Five Minutes in the Word 
Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, LORD; listen to my cry for mercy.
Psalm 86:4–6 NIV
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
Proverbs 17:9
“Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”
Matthew 6:11–12
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.”
Luke 6:37