Q: How can we really forgive and forget when we feel that fellow church members have made poor decisions for our church or treated us poorly?
A1: When Christ Jesus was asked if we should forgive seven times, his answer was decisive. “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22, Eugene Peterson, The Message). But when the baggage of hurt seems as heavy as cement, how do we forgive?
An incident years ago gave me a crash course in forgiveness. Two fellow church members had taken opposing sides on an issue concerning the church. Their disagreement escalated into criticism. It hurt, and I tried to forgive, for I loved them both, but the feud raged on and church decisions were being influenced by it. To add to the burden, a loved relative was seriously ill.
