Restart Your Computer

Love . . . keeps no record of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13:4-5, NIV

The modern computer dates back to the 1930s and 1940s, and the personal computer to the 1970s. But the most powerful computer in the world was created thousands of years ago: the human brain (and its spiritual manifestation, the human mind). One of the most powerful applications today for computers is financial record keeping—keeping track of every last penny. And the human mind has the same capacity.

One fault of the human brain is that it has to be refreshed frequently to hold on to facts and figures lest they fade from memory. But that’s not a problem for people who have been hurt by others—they replay the hurt daily until it gets seared into their cortex. Years later they can tell you when and how the offense occurred and how much it hurt. The Greek language of the New Testament had a word for such record keeping: logizomai. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love doesn’t logizomai. Love keeps no records of wrongs suffered; love forgives and forgets. God casts our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), and we should do the same with the sins of others.

Restart your mental computer today. Erase the old files, and forgive.

“I can forgive, but I cannot forget” is only another way of saying, “I will not forgive.”

HENRY WARD BEECHER