1 Peter 2:19-21 (ESV)
19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

Colossians 3:12-14 (ESV)
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Sometime life just sucks, isn’t fair, and keeps kicking you in the privates. There are some horrible things that happen to us, to our kids, to our families, to our strangers – unspeakable horrors of murder, incest, rape, disease, abuse, persecution, torture, and the list goes on. These things are real, horrifically life changing. Why, if there is a God, does he allow these things to happen we ask?

Have you ever thought about how well we heal when we put our mind, heart, and effort into it? How about when we put our faith into it? At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if our end goal is eternity. Pretty simple huh? No, it’s not. For me, I’ve been through some stuff in my life and badly hurt people that loved me through my actions or actions that I allowed. I wish I could hit the redo button, I can’t. What I can do is ask for forgiveness and undo as much damage as I can through my actions in the future. But think about how we heal and why and that gives a window into the why God allows it to happen.

Healing starts with forgiveness. Forgiveness is much easier when we focus on the life after this life. It allows for enduring sorrows while suffering unjustly. It allows for compassionate hearts, kindness in the face of wickedness, humility, meekness and patience. Just as Christ has forgiven us, made us perfect before God, we are to model that behavior in all that we do.

It waterfalls down from the horrific to the mundane and hits every rock and bump in the road. Forgiveness bring peace. Peace allows us to heal. Healing comes from God who changes us from the inside out.

For me, even if the glass is bone dry, it’s full – maybe not of water, but it’s full. Life does suck sometimes, and we have the blessing to heal through forgiveness as He has taught us. “My flesh may fail, but my God you never will.”*

*Give Me Faith by Elevation Worship