Forgiveness

The title of this post is forgiveness, as you already saw.  Forgiveness is such a fantastic thing to think of.  When you forgive someone, you're letting go of all the pain they caused you, and saying, "it's ok.  I still love you."  But you still remember what they did to hurt you.
But here's the fantastic thing about it: We still remember it, but God doesn't.  I can't even wrap my mind around that... the total forgiveness. Totally forgetting what happened... just imagining God saying, "it's ok.  I still love you."  And there's no way He can love you any less, no matter what you did.
So here's the thing:  I was just stuck in my faith for a long time.  Like Matthew West's song "Going Through the Motions".  I was just going through the motions of being a Christian.  Reading my Bible, singing in church, going to youth group, and not really changing anything in my heart.  But then I realized that God TOTALLY forgives.  He's totally forgiven all my sin... no matter what it was.  I thought that God couldn't possibly love someone like me... I do too many bad things, and He's too perfect.  But He does!  Isn't that Awesome??
As Relient K's song, "Hope for Every Fallen Man", goes, "Don't give up it's not the end, there's hope for every fallen man to pick themselves up when they think they can't, because with every passing second comes a second chance."  Hope for EVERY fallen man. :)