Forgiveness

I recently heard a story about a little boy named Grant.  When Grant showed up for the first day of school he showed up with a bucket of “stuff.”  Throughout the day he held on it because everything in the bucket was very important to him.  As Grant went throughout his day he would walk from place to place and he would find more stuff to add to his bucket.  This was his bucket and he wanted to put things it in that were important to him.  As the day went on it got to the point that Grant needed a bigger bucket because he kept adding more stuff and he wanted to make sure he had everything with him wherever he went.  And everywhere he went, Grant held on to his bucket.  However the problem was Grant could not participate in the normal activities with the rest of his class because he was holding on to his bucket.  He couldn’t have relationships with the other kids because he was holding on to his bucket.  The teachers realized in order to get Grant to participate in activities with the rest of his class they were going to have to get Grant to let go of his bucket.  Here is what they did.  A teacher would wait for Grant to show up at the door and she would say, “Good morning Grant, why don’t you let me hold on to your bucket while someone gives you a hug.” Or “Here Grant let me hold on to your bucket while you play with this toy.”  Gradually over time Grant began to let go of his bucket more and more until the day came when he showed up to school without the bucket.  That was the turning point in Grant’s life, when he let go of the bucket.  Grant’s teacher said his personality changed and he began to interact with other students in a way he never had before.

The principle is simple; until Grant was able to let go of the thing he had been holding on to he wasn’t able to move to the next level in his life.

In some ways we adults are more like Grant than we would like to admit.  Isn’t it true that we all have our own personal buckets?  We walk around holding on to stuff we don’t want to let go of.  And somewhere along the way we accumulate all these things we think are important to us.  And we don’t just gather things, we gather thoughts and feelings especially in the areas of pain, hurt, and disappointment.

We begin to collect all these things we are holding on to emotionally and we don’t want to let them go.  Every time we get hurt we add to our bucket, and sometimes when we get hurt we add a new bucket that represents this new hurt.  We start storing up grievances towards specific people who have hurt us.  It seems that sometimes we end up holding on to a lot of stuff we don’t want to let go of.   Why do we do that?  I think sometimes we think we might need it.  It gives us a sense of ownership because one day we might need to hold it over somebody else or against somebody else.  As long as we hold on to those things we feel safe, we feel protected, we feel more in control.  Freedom never comes until we let go of the bucket.  Just like Grant, a turning point happens in our life when we learn how to let go.

This month in children’s worship we are learning about forgiveness. We define forgiveness as, deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn’t have to pay.  In other words, forgiveness is letting go of the buckets and learning to walk away.  Forgiveness happens when we decide we are going to stop adding to the bucket we are carrying; when we decide we are going to stop gathering ammunition for another day.  We must decide that we are going to drop the things we have been holding on to and walk away.  It is like our memory verse says in Colossians 3:13: “Forgive the things you are holding against one another.  Forgive just as the Lord forgave you.”  The most compelling reason we have to forgive others is because we have been forgiven ourselves.

This month let's spend some time thinking about the kinds of buckets we all carry around with us all the time.  It is our hope that this month our kids will learn:
1.     There is nothing they could ever do that God can’t forgive.

2.     Because God has forgiven us we have the power to forgive others.

3.     The sooner we cooperate with God’s plan of forgiveness the sooner we will begin to become the people God has created us to be.

Is it easy to just drop the bucket and forgive?  No, not always.  Is forgiveness a part of God’s plan for our lives? Yes.  The reality is sometimes the hurts are real but the God who forgives is also the God who helps us forgive.

See you Sunday,
Pastor Ed