allowing the spark to jump

Saturday June 18th, John 20: 21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." As the children of God and followers of Christ, we are sent out into the world to forgive others, which is the ultimate form of healing. The question often comes, what happens if we do not forgive? If we do not forgive we find ourselves holding grudges, seeking revenge and retaliation, and in general we are left holding the bag. In the brain, nerve endings do not touch, there is a small gap across which a spark jumps, then a connection made, a thought is formed and the brain works as God intended (simplified I know but work with me). In life, if the connection between one another is not made, if forgiveness is withheld and grudges, revenge and retaliation are allowed to insulate and protect us from the possibility of those connections, we cease to function as God intended. To forgive is to be open to the process of reconciliation, but also keep in mind that part of the process is so that we too will be open to change. Change that can only take place on one side is not change at all, but rather tyranny, as Paulo Freire, in the book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” points out, to invite one into a system that must remain unchanged is a act of violence. The spirit brings about wholeness by allowing the spark to jump from our lives to the lives of others and back again, out and out until the body of Christ comes alive again and again and again in the lives of those it touches.