By Angela D. Thomas, DrPH, MPH, MBA You respond the way the Word tells you to, not the way the culture tells you to. You love your enemies, you extend real grace, and you refuse to let a five-second reaction undo you. Because when it's all said and done, God holds you accountable for your response, not for their offense. Let me ask you a hard one. When somebody comes for you, whose script are you actually following? Because the culture handed you a script, and you know it by

Spiritually, physically, and relationally. Unforgiveness is not a neutral place to stay. It is actively costing you something every single day you hold it. And the person you are trying to punish by withholding forgiveness is not the one paying the highest price. You are. We have been with Eric all week. His wife and unborn child killed in a car crash caused by a driver named Matt, a twenty year old firefighter who fell asleep at the wheel after a twenty four hour shift. We h

Because replaying it usually means the forgiveness is still in process, not that it failed. Forgiveness is not a single moment. It is a decision you make and then keep making until the hold is gone. And there are a few things you might still believe about forgiveness that are quietly keeping you stuck in the replay. We have been with Eric all week. His wife and unborn child killed by a driver in a car crash. His nineteen-year-old daughter surviving. And now we know the driver

It does not mean what culture told you it means. And if you have been trying to do culture's version of forgiveness and failing, that is not a faith problem. That is a definition problem. Let's fix the definition. We left off yesterday with Eric, a pastor whose wife and unborn child were killed in a car crash caused by another driver. His nineteen-year-old daughter survived. We asked whether Eric should forgive the driver. And we looked at Stephen, who forgave the people ston

Because culture handed you a version of forgiveness that is almost impossible to actually do. And then told you that if you can't do that version, you haven't really forgiven. No wonder it feels impossible. The good news is that God's version of forgiveness looks very different from what most of us were taught. I want to tell you about a man named Eric. In October 2006, Eric received a phone call with devastating news. His wife, who was 30 years old at the time, and his unbor