Seventy Times Seven

Anger and forgiveness are automatic conversation starters in our group. No warm-up or DVD needed. Here are some thoughts we tossed around:
- anger can easily become a habit of the heart and lodge deeply there
- our level of anger is a reflection of our overall satisfaction with our life, more of a symptom than a cause
- forgiveness only comes from the heart, not the head – saying it doesn’t make it so
- our world is full of petty anger and not nearly enough God honoring righteous anger and we stand convicted by our lack of righteous anger
- seasons of life – our circumstances – are a factor in the level of anger in our life
- forgiving a deep hurt is incredibly hard even when we know we should and want to forgive
We finished the DVD and the words “seventy times seven” echoed subtly and weighed somewhat heavily in the room. While we struggle with anger, we struggle with forgiveness more. The deep wounds inflicted on us by others are hard to forgive. And especially hard when the person who hurt us doesn’t care about the hurt or doesn’t want to be part of our healing the hurt. How do you forgive someone like that? And what if the hurting continues – over and over again? Can Jesus really expect us to forgive someone over and over who hurts us over and over?
As I sat struggling with words I have always found hard - Seventy times seven? Really? – my lens shifted. What if Jesus was also saying that He knew how hard forgiving is for us? What if He is saying that we will have to forgive over and over and over – seventy times seven – before we will be able to root those angers and pains that have lodged deeply in heart? What if the “seventy times seven” Jesus was talking about wasn’t just about us forgiving someone who repeatedly hurts us, but was also about how hard and how often we will need to work to root out the deep hurts from our heart?
I often beat myself up and feel like a failure because I know I haven’t really forgiven. Oh, I’ve said the words, I know I should be forgiving, and even tried to forgive. But deep in my heart – and that’s the key – I continue to be angry and unforgiving. But isn’t Jesus saying He knows our heart, He knows our struggle, He understands how hard forgiveness is for us. And so He asks us not to stop trying, not to become discouraged, but to keep forgiving the same hurt until it is rooted out of our heart – even if it takes seventy time seven times to release the hurt and truly forgive.
Inflicting a deep hurt can be a matter of a single event. Forgiving a deep hurt can be a lifetime process. Jesus encourages us in the process. He knows it’s hard for us, but He wants our hearts to be free of the darkness of our anger. He encourages us to keep trying, to keep forgiving again and again and again until we have released our hearts from the angry chains that bind us so deeply. Even if it takes seventy times seven times.