The step to take here is not to try to forget. The step here is not to try not to remember the event. To not remember what that person said or did to you. The step here is to simply forgive, again. You see forgiveness is more than just a singular event. A one-time thing we got through. Forgiveness is more of a posture. More of a perspective that we take on a particular event or towards a person. Where every time we remember the event. Every time it comes to mind and all the feelings around it come again. Every time we’re faced again with this decision either to demand that that person pay for what they did, or we choose once again to forgive. And not just that time but every time. Until eventually yes, you get so used to having this posture of forgiveness towards that person or towards that situation. That the event no longer stirs up feelings of anger or animosity. You see forgiveness is not a onetime set it and forget it thing that we do. It is a posture that we live in every day.

So you're in the pool and you got a beach ball and it's full of air and you know, so obviously, in in our little example here, the air is our anger, right? So, you’re trying to keep anger under the water. You all can kind of picture what that would feel like. And we spend so much time in life like trying to keep the beach ball under the water, trying to keep our anger from, you know, popping up and showing itself. And you do that, but anybody who's ever tried to keep a beach ball under the water knows that eventually it's impossible to do because eventually, you know, it pops up and there's your anger out there for all to see. Unless, of course, you get rid of all kinds of anger, which in our little example would be to let the air out of the beach ball, right? Because you let the air out of the beach ball, well, it's not going to pop up anymore, right? Which is great. Now it stays under the water. The only thing is that all the pressure around you is still there. All the things that caused your anger to want to pop up, they're still there. And now that you don't have any anger in you, what are you supposed to do? Are you just supposed to live like a shriveled up beach ball?

Life in the kingdom of God is not a life of just not saying unwholesome things, but of saying things that spread God's grace out into the world.

Ultimately, work is not about how much money it brings into us. It is about how much of us we put into what we do. See, ultimately our work is not about earning our own living. Our work is not about us being able to achieve comfort and self-sufficiency for us and for our family. Our work is not a way to establish our status in society. Our work, us doing something useful with our own hands, according to this passage, is about having something to share with others. Paul writes, "Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need.” - Ephesians 4:28

Jesus is our model for attitude, and behavior, and perspective, and concepts. You see, only Jesus, is the whole package. Only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If we want to have life, real life, where we don’t just pick and choose aspects of Jesus to incorporate. We don’t pick his death for our sins so that we can get to heaven when we die. We don’t just pick his teachings as pithy words of comfort. We don’t just have him as a friend to keep us company and to keep us from being lonely. We don’t just have him as a champion for our causes, whatever our cause may be. If we want to have life we must learn the Jesus way of life. We must enroll in the school of Jesus. Where Jesus himself is the teacher. Jesus himself is the subject. And Jesus himself is the ultimate standard of truth, but it’s all of him and we have to choose him. Pick a situation that you are in; maybe something that is troubling you, maybe a decision you’re having to make, maybe a place you find yourself in and ask yourself the question, am I allowing Jesus to teach me how to handle this? Do I want Jesus to teach me how to handle this?