Movement is Like Forgiveness

Categories: Blog, Uncategorized Sep 17, 2014

[caption id="attachment_2099" align="alignnone" width="350"] Don't let life weigh you down.[/caption]

Did you know that a spring can have a memory? It's true. If you place weight on a spring and you leave that weight on the spring for a while, the spring may not return to its original strength or form. The same thing can be seen in a piece of paper. My wife folds the top, right corner of pages in books - this drives me nuts. Once a page has been folded, it retains a crease. The page keeps a memory of the fold it was left with to mark my wife's place.

People can be much the same as springs, or pieces of paper. We, too, retain memories of events or stresses that weigh on us like the spring, or that crease us like the folded pages of a book. Events in our lives create memories and in some instances, they create scars - very sensitive reminders, or memories.

Whether it is the stress of being sedentary, the stress of being injured, the wounds of a surgery, or the wounds of a friend, the answers to restoration are the same. If we want to restore ourselves from the memories and scars that life gives us we need to move. Both physically and mentally; we need to move on.

Physically, when we move, when we engage in the movements we were designed to engage in throughout our entire lives, we are "exercising the spring" so to speak. Moving often and moving well are often the "cure" to removing stresses that would otherwise weigh us down and create bad memories in our bodies (scars, injuries, or brokenness). Likewise, moving the way we were designed to move also restores and calms our thoughts and emotions. In other words, movement brings peace and clarity of thought during times of stress, or during would-be times of scars.

Movement helps the body forget the "bad memories" that have been stored up over the years due to the weights and stresses of life: "bad backs", "trick knees", achy hips, bad relationships, poor posture, bad dreams, depression, fears, hurts, etc... Movement helps us to forgive.

Forgive? Yes. Forgive. Harboring un-forgiveness is like dragging a weight around. It places a constant load on our minds and hearts. Soon, if we carry the weight of unforgiveness around for any length of time, we start to lose our original strength, our original form. We may become unrecognizable to those around us, or even ourselves. The stress of unforgiveness is a huge weight to bear. It changes our intended shape, and we shrink; much like the compressed spring.

Something as simple as taking a walk during a time of hurt, during a time of unforgiveness, can offer us clarity and maybe even give us the hope of freedom and restoration. Deciding to "move on", deciding to forgive, is the best way to remove the weight we bear when we are harboring unforgiveness. Unforgiveness leaves scars. Forgiveness, true forgiveness, removes them.

What is true forgiveness? It is letting go. Letting go of the scars, letting go of the memories. You often hear people say things like, "I forgive you, but I can't forget what you did.", or maybe they say, "You can forgive a person, but that doesn't mean you forget what happened." You know what that is? It is carrying around the weight of a memory that only leads to brokenness. True forgiveness leads to forgetfulness. When you truly forgive, you remove the memories of whatever it was that caused you pain - as far as the east is from the west. It is as if the incident that scarred you never happened. That is true forgiveness. That is "moving on".

Oh, and in case this might slip by you, sometimes the one person who needs the most forgiveness is ourselves. For whatever reason many of us find it easier to forgive others than we do ourselves. We walk around condemning our selves over our past, our choices, our circumstances. This is toxic and it is too much weight to bear. Bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders, due to unforgiveness, will eventually crush you. It will short circuit your circuits. You have to be able to let go, take a deep breath, and forgive yourself. Can you cast your weights aside?

OK. what is the point to all of this mamby pamby talk about forgiveness, memories and scars? The point is, none of us were made to be broken; not physically, not mentally, not emotionally. We were all made to be strong, healthy, vibrant, and free. We cannot ever be free if there is any one thing weighing us down. Most any weight, most any anchor, can be removed if we decide to move and move on. We don't have to retain the memories of our past. We don't have to be stuck in a broken body and we don't have to be imprisoned by a broken heart. But we do have to decide. We have to decide to be free. We get to decide to move.

Move and move on. Decide to move, on purpose, because you want to. Go for a walk. Go for a crawl. Open your arms, give a hug to a friend and let go of your chains. The best way to receive a hug is to open your arms and give one. Let go. Move on. Forgive.


If you know someone who might be feeling trapped, stuck, or weighed down, please forward this post to them and help them move on and restore the life they were meant to have.

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