I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.My name is KAGGWA JONES FRENCHMAN. I am a true follower of Jesus Christ and a Ugandan by nationality. I’ve something which I hope would be of great importance to share with you. Ever since I was born, the word ‘FORGIVENESS’ has never changed either in spelling or in its appearance. When seen from a closer view, it looks to be short and very easy to write, however, so hard to put into practice. ‘FORGIVENESS’ is very long as far as its meaning is concerned. Have you ever forgiven any one in your life? The actual answer differs from one person to another regardless of age and gender.
I believe that at least everybody has ever done a wrong. Not once, not twice, but God knows better. Close your inner eyes and try to retrieve from your past experiences and see whether you have ever sought forgiveness from anybody. You can imagine the situation. Who forgives who anyway? Remember that we Christians are emulators of Jesus Christ. I know it is painful to bear, but here is my testimony:
Once upon a time, I had two eyes and my sight was okay. My life was going well and I always hoped for a bright future. I had dreams of becoming a great man of God and a prosperous person in my family. Unfortunately, out of the blue, someone dismantled my life almost to nothing. He beat me until I passed out and I came to in the hospital. I was admitted in the hospital for four months and when I was discharged I was told that I had lost sight in my right eye. To this day I have only one eye. I will never forget such an experience in my life, though ten years have passed. This has devastated my life both physically and mentally.
Ever since I got this injury on my body, my life has changed greatly. I started feeling inferior to my friends at school and in the neighborhood. Loneliness replaced my happiness in my heart. I lost interest and hope in God, though I remained a devoted Christian. Due to much discrimination from the public and friends in general who nicknames me all sorts of painful and dirty names, I decided to HATE Paulo for what he had done to my life. Little did I know that holding a grudge against a fellow man is like soaking one’s faith in Satan’s open teeth. The more I hated Paulo, the looser I became in Christ. Instead of emulating Jesus Christ in my life I decided to engage in unconstructive nonsense as far as holiness is concerned. Hatred contaminated all my ways of sober thinking and for sure it affected my relationship with God. Remember, your heart is the engine to your whole body and a damage to your heart is also felt by your soul. Accept the reality and lessen the burden on your heart, for I gained nothing in hating Paulo.
One day I attended a morning Sunday service and surprisingly the preacher for that day preached about forgiveness. He preached from Matthew 18:21-35 and at the end of it all I felt a debt in my life. He insisted on forgiving our fellow man. I shed tears in my heart because I remembered how I had suffered in my life because of my fellow man. Now the preacher was insisting that I had to forgive such a “useless” creature in my heart. I had been considering revenge and not forgiveness. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” “What’s wrong with this preacher?!” I thought in my mind.
After the service I told the preacher, brother Nathan, all that was eating me up. I thought he would encourage me to hate Paulo the more since I had tangible reasons for my hatred. But I felt like jumping out of my skin when he told me to forgive Paulo. He even insisted that I should go and seek forgiveness from him for my grudge against him. Just imagine the situation, I shrank back with anger and felt like dying. It was an unbearable situation. Nathan insisted, “You are fostering a grudge against God, but not Paulo, and so it is a sin.” We read so many Scriptures from the Bible and he advised me to repent of my sins before it was too late. This was a schism in Christianity because Paulo is also a follower of Christ the Savior.
After two hours of intensive counseling in God’s ways, I saw the need to stop boasting around with a grudge. I had poisoned my life for so long and now it was time to let Jesus flourish in my life. Jesus died for man to have peace, but I had no peace in my mind. Hatred is like cancer in our hearts which need to be removed before it attacks the blood vessel. We ought to garment our lives with the love of Jesus Christ, but not with crimes. Holding a grudge is compared to harassing one’s life. Sin halts your heart and saps your life.
At last I chose to forgive Paulo and forget whatsoever he did to me. I am now living a free Christian life. My soul is no longer troubled. And this goes to all Christians around the world. Please don’t be easily overcome by Satan. It’s precisely inept to hate your neighbor. We should be experts in knowing the truth and it shall set us free, but sin separates us from God’s love.
I went to Paulo’s home to ask him to forgive me for hating him intensely for the past ten years. When I apologized, Paulo could hardly believe his ears, knowing the great pain he had caused me. “No, I’m the one who should apologize to you,” he said. We talked for the next two hours and at last we parted as friends in Christ.
I hope that my story will help you to find forgiveness in your relationships with others. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13). God bless you.
