The Cutting Room Floor · Quarryville Church

5. Receiving Forgiveness (Feat. Bob Garvey)

April 26, 2021·17 min·1 clip

Bob Garvey reveals he forgives everyone but himself, holding a grudge against his own past decisions.

The episode opens with Chris framing the topic as a follow-up to earlier weeks on forgiveness: what happens when you need to forgive yourself. Bob Garvey, pastor of West Willow United Methodist, shares a recent epiphany that while he has fully forgiven every person in his life, he holds himself to a higher standard and cannot release bitterness toward himself. Chris notes the psychological oddness of self-forgiveness and the pattern of believing God has forgiven you while feeling it isn't enough. Bob admits as a pastor he has found himself embarrassed by how little he actually understood forgiveness, and that Scripture notably contains many one-another commands but never forgive yourself. They read Scripture through the lens of ordinary human behavior, pointing to David and Bathsheba and Adam and Eve as examples of people who sinned in ways modern listeners can recognize in themselves. Bob proposes that purpose, biblically, is to glorify God, and that seeking God's forgiveness is the superior route to self-forgiveness, with horizontal forgiveness of others as the cross-beam completing the cross. Chris introduces six stronghold beliefs that block self-forgiveness including I'm unlovable, nobody will ever love me, I'll always be a failure, and if people really knew me they wouldn't like me. He reads a Fyodor Dostoevsky passage about childlike belief that suffering will be healed and all contradictions justified in the final harmony of heaven. Chris connects this to the cross as a seminal universal moment that rights all wrongs. Bob cites Colossians 2, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5, 1 John 4 and Colossians 1:27 as passages declaring believers forgiven past, present and future, made new creations, and accepted. Chris closes with the image of unforgiveness toward oneself as wielding a scalpel, and grace taking the knife out of your hand. They end noting forgiveness is a step toward regeneration and sanctification, not the end of the journey, and Bob plugs BibleStrengthProject.com.

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