Love keeps no record of wrongs
GOD’S WORD: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8a
By Glenn Miller
Keeping a tab on those who wrong us is nothing but resentment. Resentment is yesterday’s hurts etched into the memory banks of our minds to where even minor hurts become major resentments. With resentment residing in our hearts, it displaces room for forgiveness and grace. A wise person once told me that keeping a record of wrongs people do to you is like keeping that broccoli in the refrigerator. You know you’re right in having it on your list of proper vegetables but pretty soon is begins to brown and wither and above all… smell! Nothing stinks up a refrigerator like rotten broccoli! But instead of throwing it out, we hold onto it; thinking that someday we’ll need it and remind ourselves that it’s good for us. But like resentful feelings, it’s time to throw it out and remove the stink.
And that’s not easy to do.
We remember our hurts and pains with vivid integrity. We hold onto them as a reminder that we have been a victim. We want justice served on those who have wronged us. But we know that the longer we hold onto these hurt feelings, they will eventually eat away at our joy and ability to love and trust others like a cancerous tumor.
It’s only through the power of love that we have the strength to do this. It’s the power of love that let’s us put these hurts behind us (as opposed to the front of our thoughts) and love those who have wronged us in agape love. And when we’re able to do that, a peace comes upon us and we come to know something more about our Savior who saves us from ourselves.
Christ is calling us to let go; to release these “records of wrongs”; to love that person not BECAUSE of what they did, but DESPITE of what they did.
“Love one another, as I have loved you.”
