Christians have been admonished to adopt a merciful and forgiving attitude in their daily lives.
On the Easter edition of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, playwright James Ebo Whyte and CEO of Stratcom Africa, Esther Cobbah said being annoyed or angry with someone for a prolonged period is not beneficial to one’s well-being.
For them, forgiveness benefits the individual who has been hurt and learning to let go of negative emotions helps on to live a life full of grace and harmony.
Uncle Ebo Whyte said it may not be easy to forgive and people refuse to forgive because they think they are punishing the other person by not forgiving.
But “it is not about the person who has hurt you, it is about you. That is why wise people say when you refuse to forgive, it is like you have drunk poison hoping that the person who has hurt you will die from the poison you have drank.
“When you are able to forgive, you transform your life and lift up your image to a higher level. Your life suddenly gets to a higher level just because you have been able to forgive,” he added.
Uncle Ebo Whyte believes that holding on to bitterness only closes doors, but forgiveness opens new doors.
“Somebody says ‘you as long as I am here you’ll get promoted over my dead body’. That person did you good because what he did, forced you to look outside the establishment and say ‘what are my options’. If he hadn’t done, that you will never have looked.”
CEO of Stratcom Africa, Esther Cobbah taking it from the biblical point, said forgiveness is undoubtedly difficult.
But if was not, she said “God wouldn’t have asked us to do it 77×7 times. Forgiveness is looking at what hurts, what annoys you, what makes you want to just get rid of somebody and saying ‘let it go it is okay’.”
She also stressed that people who refuse to forgive others, imprison themselves.
For her, the heart is too small to bear grudges, “it was created to pump blood to all parts of the body and it has to be light to be able to do it effectively.”
Refusing to forgive, therefore, overloads the heart and so love yourself, make forgiveness a selfish act that if I let go, I free myself, she said.
Again, citing the bible, Ms Cobbah said one will be forgiven by God, once they learn to forgive others and the first step to forgiving someone is seeing it as something that is for self.
