[Friday's Devotional] - Forgive us our sins

Forgive us our sins The last time I visited this spot, two towers were in its place.  I lived in America at this time and we had decided to have a mini-trip out to New York.  We met good friends who had travelled from London and we had an incredible time together. We walked around the financial district and visited all the other great places in New York on our 4 day trip. Less than 12 months later the towers were destroyed in an attack that gave my generation its defining moment in History, its "Where were you...?" moment! I've talked about my time in America many times and how this act on Sept-11 led to my redundancy and the end of my American dream.  So returning to this point was quite emotional. Americans get a bad reputation all over the world for doing things to excess, and celebrating success so publicly.  I think it's part of them.  But this memorial to the Twin Towers is so peaceful and respectful, you almost lose the feeling that 2,871 people lost their lives at the spot. The flower in the picture is a reminder in aid of the birthday of somebody who died in the attack, but flicking through my pictures a month or so after our trip I was hit by a sense of peace that I didn't realise at the time.  Although I lost no friends and I was over 2,000 miles from the attack, it ultimately changed my life and I realised re-visiting the spot that I hadn't had a chance to forgive those who committed the attacks or those that took the decisions to terminate my employment due to the widening economic crisis after the attacks. I had carried around with me feelings of resentment and pain for so many years.  When seeing this picture, I was struck by an immense desire to forgive.  Almost an epiphany. Holding onto pain can be very destructive, I'd carried this pain with me for over a decade.  It had become part of me and the longer I carried it, the more I didn't want to let it go.  It defined me.  But without forgiveness, I couldn't possibly move on.  Nothing was going to take me back to those carefree days of my late twenties without responsibilities.  So why hold onto something I could no longer influence?  Forgiveness, it seemed to me, was something you have to give as well as receive, all those years of daily saying:  "Forgive us our sins as we forgive others" never really struck a chord with me. Let go of your pain, forgive, and be forgiven.  Trust me, life seems better in doing so. Steve Fogo   Twitter Website Copyright © 2016 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!