Imagine you're hauling around a sack of bricks everywhere you go. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. Ailments show up. Signs of wear and tear appear. Replacement body parts are necessary. All of this because you're hauling around a sack of bricks you accumulated over time that you really don't need.
I hauled these bricks for years because they belonged to me. I earned them by getting into fights I could have avoided. These bricks were my trophies. Every time someone wronged me I added another brick to my bag. There were times when someone would approach me and ask for the brick back. I chose not to let go for one reason. I wanted the world to see my trophies.
There's a quote about our trophies in the Bible and Jesus has another name for them – trespasses. It's a fancy name for bricks. You can also call them grudges. When my sack of bricks was bulging at the seams I remember going to church and hearing about my trophies/bricks/grudges aka trespasses in the "Our Father" prayer. "This is BS," I told myself, holding on to every precious brick I earned. I wrongly believed Jesus was trying to trick me into my own ticket to Hell when he taught, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." What kind of idiot would actually pray that when we refuse to forgive? Well, only a fool believes bricks are more valuable in our possession than when they're buried in the past where they belong.
I'm still working on downsizing my bag of bricks. I'm finding a correlation between the number of bricks I carry and my health. Less bricks = improved health. They're really not trophies for the world to see. The truth is I'm thankful Jesus disposed of all my bricks and he's helping me let go of the ones others wish to take back. This is what forgiveness is – an opportunity to be free of all those bricks. Have a great day.
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