Healing restores the heart.
Forgiveness restores the soul.
Somewhere beyond both…
Awaits the One…
Who has been inviting us home all along.
HOLDING ON TO SOMETHING?
Part 3
If you’ve journeyed through Part 1 and Part 2, where we explored pain, sorrow, trauma, abuse, injustice, forgiveness, healing, and recovery…
Bravo.
Not because reading about suffering is enjoyable.
Because it takes courage to look directly at it.
Anyone’s suffering deeply affects me.
These are my fellow travelers.
My like-kind.
People making their way through this brief adventure we call life, carrying hopes remarkably similar to my own.
We all want peace.
We all long to be loved.
We all seek understanding.
We all hope that one day…
Everything will somehow make sense.
MANKIND’S STORY
The history of mankind has always contained suffering.
Wars.
Disease.
Natural disasters.
Broken families.
Abuse.
Loss.
Heartbreak.
Some of it comes through nature.
Much of it comes through one human being harming another.
That raises an honest question.
Why?
Why does suffering exist?
Why are we allowed to experience so much of it?
Every thoughtful person eventually wrestles with those questions.
MY JOURNEY
Each of us must discover our own understanding.
What follows is simply mine.
Not to force agreement.
But to explain how I arrived where I stand today.
My search eventually brought me back to the story of Adam and Eve.
Whether one sees it literally, spiritually, or both…
Its message profoundly affected me.
Humanity chose independence from God.
With that choice came separation.
Not because God stopped loving us…
But because every choice carries consequences.
The farther we wandered from our Creator…
The farther we wandered from ourselves.
WHAT WAS LOST?
Imagine children growing up without loving parents.
Without guidance.
Without protection.
Without wise instruction.
Eventually they begin making their own rules.
Some work.
Many do not.
That picture helped me understand much of humanity.
We became spiritually orphaned.
Trying to discover life…
Without fully knowing the One who gave it.
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Then came another remarkable gift.
The commandments.
They were never merely restrictions.
They were directions.
Road signs pointing us back toward healthier living.
Toward one another.
Toward God.
Yet history shows something remarkable.
Knowing what is right…
Doesn’t automatically give us the power to do it.
Something deeper was needed.
HOPE ARRIVES
The prophets spoke of One who would come.
Not merely to give more rules…
But to become the Way.
Jesus Christ entered history carrying something humanity desperately needed.
Hope.
Mercy.
Grace.
Forgiveness.
He reduced countless commandments into two beautiful invitations.
Love God.
Love your neighbor.
Everything else begins finding its proper place.
WHY HIS SUFFERING?
One question stayed with me for years.
Why would someone completely innocent willingly suffer?
The answer slowly unfolded.
He entered human suffering…
Rather than avoiding it.
He carried rejection.
Betrayal.
Pain.
Humiliation.
Cruelty.
Even death itself.
Not because He deserved any of it.
But because He chose to walk where we walk.
No one can honestly say…
“He doesn’t understand.”
He understands.
YOU CANNOT PLAY GOD
One lesson continually stood out to me.
Do not seek revenge.
Do not become what wounded you.
Forgive.
Leave ultimate justice where it belongs.
That doesn’t excuse evil.
It refuses to let evil continue reproducing itself through us.
Every act of forgiveness interrupts another cycle of pain.
Every act of humility weakens pride.
Every sacrifice made for love plants another seed of hope.
WHAT IF I FAIL?
You will.
So will I.
Many times.
That realization no longer discourages me.
It comforts me.
Because God’s mercy has always been greater than my failures.
The journey isn’t about becoming instantly perfect.
It’s about becoming increasingly willing.
Every sincere step matters.
Every honest repentance matters.
Every attempt to love better matters.
Grace continues meeting us there.
FIND YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING
My purpose isn’t to convince you to borrow my faith.
Faith borrowed from another person rarely survives life’s storms.
Seek.
Question.
Knock.
Explore honestly.
Truth has never feared investigation.
If your search is sincere…
I believe you’ll eventually discover what I discovered.
FORGIVE…
AND YOU WILL BE FORGIVEN
This truth changed my life.
I needed forgiveness beyond counting.
How could I ask for mercy…
While refusing to extend it?
Forgiveness became more than something I offered.
It became something I practiced.
Not because every offender deserved it.
Because I wanted freedom more than I wanted resentment.
Every person must eventually answer that same question.
Which burden will I continue carrying?
The offense…
Or the freedom to release it?
FINAL THOUGHT
The road home begins with one remarkable step.
Forgive.
Not because the past wasn’t painful.
Not because justice doesn’t matter.
Not because evil should be ignored.
Forgive…
Because freedom is waiting on the other side.
May your journey continue.
May your heart grow lighter.
May truth become your companion.
And may you discover…
That God has been walking beside you…
Far longer than you ever imagined.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
Been expecting you