Being a Christian is about more than checking a religion box on a survey. Going to church is about more than the style of music or the brilliance of the pastor or the roast of the coffee.

To be a Christian is to literally follow Christ, and in so doing our lives look more and more like Jesus’. In choosing to follow Jesus, we will make continual decisions to practice disciplines that bring us into God’s presence with a posture of humility, ready and willing to be changed. The peace and power of the Holy Spirit bring healing to the broken places within us and lead us towards living a more whole life. But it doesn’t stop there. As we become more like Jesus, and more wholly ourselves, we begin to bring that healing and wholeness into the world.

Our world is filled with darkness and despair, violence and poverty and broken systems and broken lives. Followers of Jesus get to partner with God to bring light into these dark places, to bring hope and healing.

And it all starts with forgiveness.

If we are honestly desiring to live out the compassion and justice of Jesus, then we must begin first by laying a foundation of forgiveness. We all know our world is filled with horrific pains, and our human response is to seek retribution or vengeance, to pick sides and to demand punishment. To offer forgiveness is never our first instinct. As Adele Calhoun says,

“Forgiveness is an entirely new way of being human. It is Jesus’ way of being human.”

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun

Let’s make a courageous step toward building God’s Kingdom by practicing the Discipline of Forgiveness. Who has wronged you? Who deserves to be punished? Are you holding bitterness toward a person? Or toward a group of people or toward an entire institution? Let’s explore those pains with Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit empower you to forgive “just as in Christ, God forgave you.” (Eph 4:32)