Yesterday’s blog post dealt with fights in marriage. Disagreements, misunderstandings, miscommunication, annoyances! When it comes to marriage … and to any relationship for that matter … forgiveness is the “oil” which keeps the relationship running smoothly.
This summer hubby and I tackled the overwhelming project of splitting firewood from several huge hemlock trees we had taken down. The first step in the process was to saw the enormous, felled tree trunks into smaller sections which would fit up onto the log-splitter. It was a lot of chain-sawing!
Hubby was about 3/4ths of the way through the project, when he could tell the chainsaw was needing more oil. No time to bother going to the store to get more. We’ll just order some on Amazon … it should be here in a day or two.
But a day or two passed … and no chainsaw oil showed up.
We had SO much work to do! Summer was marching by quickly and we couldn’t just sit around on these valuable summer evenings not getting anything done on the massive project. So, hubby decided to saw just a little more on the project … just a little bit … just until the chainsaw oil showed up.
Hubby continued to conquer away at getting the logs sawed into sections … the chainsaw was still working fine. The oil should be showing up any day now.
A week passed … and then one evening the chainsaw began to smell like burned smoke. Guess it’s time to stop for the evening. We’ll give it a rest. It should be fine tomorrow.
The next evening we headed back out to work more on the project. But just a few logs in … and the chainsaw began smelling like burned smoke again. Bummer! There’s SO much work to get done! Guess we’ll have to stop again. When is that chainsaw oil ever going to show up?!?
The next evening … just one log in and smoke began pouring out of the chainsaw. A big cloud of smoke drifted across the backyard … engulfing everything in a wretched smell! I scurried around the house closing all the windows so the smell wouldn’t get in.
Oh dear … maybe we pushed it a little too far. Is the chainsaw ok? Will it still work??
No. The chainsaw was not ok. It would not come on at all. It was burned out.
All because there was no oil.
This is what happens in our relationships. Life is a lot to keep up with. It’s just a lot! And life produces friction!! There is stress. There is conflict. Just as the chainsaw blade cutting through the logs produced a lot of friction and heat … so also the same thing happens as we conquer through life each day, trying to accomplish the necessary tasks.
We need the “oil” of forgiveness to keep the blade operating smoothly and the chainsaw working properly.
We can’t produce forgiveness on our own. We need to get it from somewhere else. We need to get the “oil” of forgiveness from God … from the Holy Spirit.
But oftentimes we are too busy to think of asking the Holy Spirit for the “oil” of forgiveness. There is a lot to do! There is a lot to conquer in life! So we plow ahead. No time to worry about such things.
But plowing ahead without forgiveness is just like continuing to saw through logs without the new oil. Sooner or later we will “burn out” our relationships.
And when the relationship “burns out” … it creates a big cloud of smoke which engulfs everything around in a “wretched smell!” Everyone around suffers when a relationship “burns out.”
Perhaps you might be in a relationship in which there is tension and conflict. And perhaps you might find yourself to be the only one continually making a concerted effort to forgive … again and again and again. And perhaps you might be thinking: “What’s the point? Why keep forgiving?? It doesn’t seem to be doing any good. Perhaps I should just give up. Perhaps I should just give up on forgiving.”
If you give up on forgiving … if you stop pouring on the “oil” of forgiveness … the relationship will “burn out” and you will be left with no relationship at all! The only reason the relationship is continuing at all is because of the “oil” of forgiveness. Even if the relationship is strained … even if the relationship is tense … at least there is still a relationship. If you give up on forgiveness, the relationship will die. It will “burn out” completely.
It’s hard to keep forgiving … again . and again . and again . and again.
But keep at it!
Don’t let the relationship die. Don’t let the relationship “burn out.” Keep asking the Holy Spirit for the “oil” of forgiveness! It will take a lot of “oil” … and you don’t have it. You need the Holy Spirit to give it to you. And He will! He will keep giving and keep giving … as much as it takes!
