A Walk Toward Forgiveness: The Way of Letting Go

Because the world is broken – and it is broken in so many ways – forgiveness is a virtue. We not only forgive, but we also need to be forgiving. It should be part of our character. – Wilma Derksen
During the season of Lent, we accompany Jesus on his journey, not TO death, but THROUGH death, a journey TO resurrection and new life. This year we travel the Lenten journey as a way of becoming forgiving people: What helps Jesus forgive those who wrong him? How does following Jesus give us the resources to forgive when we have been hurt deeply? How do we receive forgiveness and grace from God?

The good news is that God is trustworthy even when life and people betray and hurt us. Trusting God, Jesus taught us how he himself prayed, “Father, forgive us as we forgive those who sinned against us.”

In her 2017 book, The Way of Letting Go: One Woman’s Walk toward Forgiveness, Wilma Derksen explores the choice of forgiveness after the murder of their daughter. She identifies 15 obstacles to forgiveness and narrates how she and Cliff let go of them. In some ways she breaks down the path of forgiveness into baby steps. For this Lent series we’ve chosen some of the obstacles that Wilma identifies, and we invite Scripture to give us resources to let go of these obstacles as they play themselves out in our own journeys of forgiveness.

Each week during Lent, look for a prayer of letting go in the all church email on Thursday. You are encouraged to begin making the prayer your own as a way of opening space to encounter God when we gather as a body on Sunday.