A Serious Matter that Involves Us All

If we are to live successfully, and if we are ever to know freedom and joy, these six words must be a regular part of our vocabulary: "I am sorry" and "I forgive you." If we lack the ability to say, "I am sorry," life will be immeasurably more difficult than it needs to be. If we can't bring ourselves to say, "I forgive you," life will be filled with bitterness and pain.

- Forgiveness: Finding Peace Through Letting Go
(emphasis mine) 

With these words in the first pages of his insightful work on an issue that impacts every one of our lives, Adam Hamilton hits on why I believe that this is something that each of us would do well to study and discuss, because there is one thing that I have noticed in my career that literally cripples individuals, family, churches, relationships, societies, and more:

Our inability to forgive and be forgiven is the number one
stumbling block to people truly embracing and celebrating the freedom Christ has so graciously offered us through His life, death, and resurrection.

Broken relationships bring so much destruction to life - if not our lives then the lives of those around us.  I don't need to go on and on here, for you know it is true, for if you don't struggle with this yourself, you know someone who does, and your life has been impacted by humanity's inability to accept and to spread the things that Christ embodied - forgiveness and reconciliation.

Lamar