What Comes Next

Whoever said, “Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you” must not have gone to junior high or been a woman. While we might expect Christians to be the exception to this cruel rule, real life proves that they are not. I’ve lost track of the number of stories I’ve heard from women who’ve been hurt by other women in ways that boggle the mind.

Because there are no perfect people, inevitably someone will hurt us and we will hurt someone. What matters is what comes next. Will we forgive them, or will we withdraw? Will we work it out, or will we write it off? We are each broken and wounded, but only by choosing to stay can we start to grow deep roots. Forgiveness is always ground zero when it comes to any relationship.

I once heard singer Ellie Holcomb say, “God didn’t come to make bad people good, he came to make dead people alive.” We tend to spend so much of our lives trying to be good; we forget that good is near impossible! It’s life that Christ came to offer us. And only through his life offered for us can we ever arrive at the gift of goodness.

How do we remain open to friendship when others have taken advantage of our vulnerability and hurt us? Do we close our front doors and our hearts or do we keep trusting God and his invitation to love other people and let them in? Are we willing to practice deliberate, courageous forgiveness? Forgiveness is where we begin. Forgiveness is a means of saying no to death and yes to life.

Lisa-Jo Baker is the bestselling author of Never Unfriended and the community manager for (in)courage. Connect with her at @lisajobaker. Portions of these devotions have been excerpted or adapted from Never Unfriended: The Secret to Finding and Keeping Lasting Friendship © Lisa-Jo Baker (B&H Publishing Group, 2017). Used by permission, all rights reserved. www.neverunfriended.com.