By Hollis Wormsby
A young teen has a dispute with another teen. It isn’t about much, but the macho kicks in and the hard head kicks in, and ultimately the I’ll be damned if you are gonna get the best of me kicks in, until he senselessly grabs a weapon and takes a life. He should have let it go.
A brother and sister have reached their golden age. It should be a time of peace, and a time to be able to look back and appreciate the years. But there is a you done me wrong between them, that they cannot let go of and so they drift alone and apart from each other. They need to let it go.
A husband and wife, mother and father, made a commitment to a life together, but over the years the collective hurt has killed the love. The number of times that they did not say I am sorry. The number of nights they went to sleep without saying I love you. The way they each dug down deeper into their own position, and swore with all the fury
of hell, they had compromised as much as they intended to. It’s only a household that is breaking up. It is only children who are being driven into confusion. They need to let it go.
For those of you who have been reading this diatribe for a while, you know that each year around Easter I write a column about the significance of learning to forgive and move on. And if you have really been reading for all these years, you know that I always begin by saying that forgiveness is not really a quality that I have personally mastered. In fact, I am the epitome of the kind who will take it to the grave. And I have paid dearly, as have those I have loved, paid dearly for my failures in this respect.
In the Bible there is a story of a man who owed his king a tremendous debt that he could not pay. The king sent for the man and was about to order that he, his wife and children, and all his possessions be sold to pay his debt, but the man begged for pity and his king had mercy on him and freed him from his debt. A little later this same man came upon a servant who owed him money, and had the man arrested and put in prison because he could not pay him. Other servants were so upset with the way he treated this man after the mercy showed him by the king that they went to the king and told him what had happened. The king was so angry he had the man arrested and sent to prison. He should have let it go.
When Jesus lay dying on the cross He looked to heaven to seek comfort from His Father. He had done no wrong. He had injured no man. In fact He had spent a life committed to uplifting Hs fellow man. And yet there He was enduring the pain of the nails that had been driven through His feet and hands, seeing the blood flow from the sword wound on His hip, with all of the agony of the world on His shoulders, what did He do? He let it go. He said Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
As Jesus was facing His last breath He gave us our last lesson, let it go.
Or at least that’s the way I see it.
Hollis Wormsby has served as a featured columnist for the Birmingham Times for more than 27 years. He is the former host of Talkback on 98.7 KISS FM and of Real Talk on WAGG AM. If you would like to comment on this column you can go to Facebook.com/holliswormsby or email him at hjwormsby@aol.com.
