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"Who wants to hoard the trash of the past? You don't, do you?"

A thought by Max Lucado from his book, Every Day Deserves a Chance: Wake Up to the Gift of 24 Hours (p. 34). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

You don’t want to do you?  I mean after a while it can really stink.

Max says, “Not in your house, mind you, but in your heart? Not the junk of papers and boxes, but the remnants of anger and hurt. Do you pack-rat pain? Amass offenses? Record slights?

“A tour of your heart might be telling. A pile of rejections stockpiled in one corner. Accumulated insults filling another. Images of unkind people lining the wall, littering the floor.

“No one can blame you. Innocence takers, promise breakers, wound makers—you’ve had your share. Yet doesn’t it make sense to get rid of their trash? Want to give every day a chance? Jesus says: Give the grace you’ve been given.”

Max also understands what you feel, “’But, Max, the hurt is so deep.’ I know. They took much. Your innocence, your youth, your retirement. But why let them keep taking from you? Haven’t they stolen enough? Refusing to forgive keeps them loitering, taking still.

“’But, Max, what they did was so bad.’ You bet it was. Forgiveness does not mean approval. You aren’t endorsing misbehavior. You are entrusting your offender to ‘Him who judges righteously’ (1 Peter 2:23 nkjv).

“’But, Max, I’ve been so angry for so long.’ And forgiveness won’t come overnight. But you can take baby steps in the direction of grace. Forgive in phases. Quit cussing the perpetrator’s name. Start praying for him. Try to understand her situation.”

Max then later says, “In the end, we all choose what lives inside us. May you choose forgiveness.”

That’s what Jesus did on that Old Rugged Cross so long ago.  He forgave us, all of our sins, our rejection, our turning away.  He could have chosen a different response, but he didn’t.  He died so that all that we have done could be forgiven.  He died so that you could also forgive.

Let his death make a difference in your heart.  Would you ask him to forgive you so that you who have been forgiven can also forgive?  Would you do that?  Would you let him clean out all of that trash in your hear?


Yes, yes!
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