throwin' rocks

this weekend i watched forrest gump. it's a great movie, don't judge me.  ha.

there's a lotta memorable lines and scenes in the movie but for some reason one in particular stood out to me.

do you remember the part where jenny sees her childhood home?  the home where her father abused her as a child?  to remind you: when she sees the house she kinda freezes.  then she runs at the house, picks up rocks, and starts throwing them at the house.  finally, after throwing a buncha rocks at the house, she crumbles to the ground and just starts sobbing.

and forrest, while narrating the story to a stranger on a bench, says, "sometimes, i guess there just aren't enough rocks."

i was struck by that.  it's probably because, in my life, i've been hurt.  and if i could, i would throw hundreds of rocks at the person(s), the thing, whatever.  but that wouldn't change things.  it wouldn't fix things.  even if i had a million rocks, there just aren't enough rocks to fix the hurts in our life.  and let's be honest, those rocks aren't gonna fix the problem anyways, they're just a temporary solution.

that's where, in my opinion, god comes in.  i think it's only in his goodness, love, and his forgiveness that we can find a permanent solution to our pain and our hurts.  it's in god where we can find the ability to forgive those who've hurt us.  so that we can move on in our life.  so we can stop feeling anger, hate, and resentment.  so that we don't keep looking for rocks.  

believe, it doesn't seem fair.  like, why should i have to feel this?  why should i have to forgive after he/she/it did that to me?  why me?  when i look at my own life, i can't answer those questions...and i'm guessing you can't either.  so i think it's time that we pick up our rocks, forgive, and move on.

i don't know about you, but in my life, forgiveness is a continuous process.  most of the time, i don't just forgive once and move on.  sometimes, depending on the depth of our pain, forgiveness has to be a daily occurrence (matthew 18:21-22).  sometimes, it's a choice.  a hard choice.  but the right choice.

another thing that's been really helpful for me is to ask other people for their help in the forgiveness process.  it's as simple as telling them about the hurt and asking them to help you forgive the offender.  outside of the fact that i think it points to our deep desire to be fully known, i can't really explain why it helps.  but trust me, it's helped me.

can you remember a time where you've chosen to forgive?  who do you currently need to forgive?  who can help you?

ml.

*photo credit: creative commons, flickr
**photo credit: beks cassinari

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