Forgiveness

I wonder if anyone watched the BBC programme ‘Pilgrimage: The road through North Wales?’ If you didn’t, it’s well worth viewing it on the BBC i-player. Essentially, a group of celebrities with different faiths (or maybe no faith at all) walk together along a path previously trodden by Christian pilgrims, whilst sharing their life journeys and beliefs.
Perhaps the most poignant part occurred in the final episode when they arrived at the coastal village of Aberdaron, facing Bardsey Island. The local church, St. Hywyns, provides an opportunity to pick up pebbles from the beach and use them as a backdrop to write down something that is weighing heavily on your heart. The pebbles are then all placed on a cairn. Once a month, the pebbles are gathered up and dropped back in the sea. The symbolism associated with this act is allowing your concerns, negativity etc. be taken away from you.
The activity proved very emotional for most of the group as they let go of the anger and grief associated with a loved one who had died or other challenging episodes in their lives such as divorce. This simple yet powerful act reminded me of how we can drop our sins at God’s feet knowing that they will be washed away through the death of Jesus on the cross – and we don’t have to earn this forgiveness, just acknowledge the sins and know they are dealt with.
Just as the participants on the ‘Pilgrimage’ programme felt a weight lift from their shoulders as their burdens were symbolically taken from them, we too should feel a release when God forgives us our sins. I found myself wondering how the pilgrims moved forward from this point. Would this act of letting go enable them to live a richer life and, if so, how? As Christians, accepting what Jesus has done for us frees us up to hopefully live a life more pleasing to God.
Having watched the programme, I was motivated to look on the internet to learn more about forgiveness. I came across an excellent article on a web-site called gospeltractandbible.org entitled ‘Forgive others to be forgiven’. Reading it reinforced for me that our forgiveness from God does depend on us also forgiving others for sins committed against us. The passage is quite challenging as it stresses that any bitterness inside us (grudges or bad-feelings towards people - even if they have done nothing wrong towards us) constitutes a sin that must be (a) brought to God for him to wash away and (b) eliminated by us to be replaced by love.
Someone once described holding a grudge as ‘drinking poison whilst expecting the person we dislike to suffer from it’! We sometimes need reminding that grudges, as well as being sin, actually hurt us. Seeing as we all, if honest, experience bad feelings towards others during our lives, it might be better for us to permanently live by the sea. Then we could regularly comb the beach for pebbles to record all the bad feelings and unrest we feel before periodically throwing them into the sea! Or perhaps we can use other events to a similar advantage? Maybe on the rare days the British weather allows us to share a family barbeque, we could choose to write sins that trouble us on a piece of paper and throw them on to the charcoal embers after the meal? I’m sure you could think of other ways to take part in this useful and powerful symbol.