Unforgiveness brings forth mistrust, stems from a lack of being able to forgive and forget. You carry unforgiveness around like a ball and chain, holding you back, dragging you back into a distant past trauma, a trauma that you won’t let go of. It holds onto you like a anchor, dragging at you, dredging up the past, bring tears hurt and most of all shame to the present. Guilt is often associated with the Unforgiveness, especially when betrayal is the root cause.
Often you have feelings that are uncontrollable. You hurt, and you want the other person to hurt too. Its not fair. What did you ever do to deserve this intense pain. You don’t want to let the pain go, afraid that if you do, you may let your guard slip and one day find yourself in the same predicament again. The pain is intense, the fear agony, gut wrenching fear that this may very well happen to you again. A fate worse than death.
Unforgiveness, brings with it a close ally, hurt. Hurt carries with it the fear of it all happening again. Hidden beneath all these emotions is a stowaway passenger known as bitterness. Bitterness creeps in all by itself silently stalking you, without the fan fare of its partner – anger. Bitterness is slimy, slinking in the dark reaches of your mind, silently striking when you least expect it.
SUDDENLY you wake up one day, a victim of the silent but deadly killer emotion known simply as bitterness. It bit you in the night of your anger, some where between anger turning to fear, before it became agony, somewhere when guilt struck. Hidden amongst all the intense emotions, the roller coaster ride of emotions, you were struck by the nastiest of all – bitterness. You awake, a victim of your emotions, the final chapter of betrayal, bitter, twisted and quite frankly a mess.
Bitterness, if left unchecked turns to a more physical problem. It has the effect of drying up the bones so says Proverbs 17:22. The Bible’s medicine to counter bitterness? A merry heart doth good like a medicine. Laughter is good for the soul, and very good, it would appear for the human body too. Scientists have discovered the excellent side effects for the body. Bitterness pollutes the blood, which in 23 seconds circulates through the entire body, spreading that toxic ‘waste’ throughout the body.
My suggestion to counter unforgiveness is to recognize the symptoms. Recognize that you are angry – and then express that anger without attempting to hurt the other person. Be open and honest with your emotions, without trying to ‘get back’ at the party that hurt you. The worst thing we can do is to deny the hurt. In our society we are quick to deny our pain, and pretend nothing is wrong. This suppression causes more pain, and releases a toxin into your blood. Deal with the problem upfront immediately, get it out in the open where it can do no more harm. Chances are the offending party did not even know they had caused offense!
DDeal with the issue before it leads to a release of toxins into the body, before bitterness creeps in. In a study conducted by Dr ML Menten (The Origin and Nature of the Emotions
B By George W. Crile Published by Kessinger Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1419176358, 9781419176357)
eEmotions (anger, fear) released unhealthy toxins into the blood stream during a lab experiment. Imagine how many toxins you have released into your blood stream…and within 23 seconds they are circulating throughout your entire body!
Makes you think perhaps its time to get a grip on the unhealthy emotions causing toxins to be released. Have you ever thought of the astounding effect your emotions have on your health? Maybe we are finally beginning to establish that the word was accurate in so many ways, on so many levels.
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