Songs- Forgiven

(Post 4 in a series on songs)


Forgiven by Sanctus Real

If you've listened to Christian radio in the past 8 months, you've probably heard this song. It's called Forgiven by Sanctus Real. While the song is great and has a very positive message, the music video better examines true forgiveness and dealing with the past. I love that the two characters learn to drop or leave their pasts and walk towards a new hope. There are times when I am hard on myself, when I belittle myself out of guilt from my sins. I'll attack myself and call myself a hypocrite and condemn all the wrong things I've done. In the right manner, doing this can be very productive; it would then be called repentance. But I would mentally belittle myself and my love for Jesus, which is called listening to a bad influence. I've committed many sins, and while none are "heinous" or "bad enough" in man's eyes, they're still wrong and I feel like a hypocrite afterwards. But I saw this music video, and, I think, for the first time, I really got what forgiveness means. It means telling God you're sorry and then striving to never repeat the same mistakes, and if you're extreme, you set out to help others who have the same struggle you once did. Through this music video, I found out the simple truth of it all. I learned that everyone is human, and humans are sinful, hence we will all sin. God didn't ask for us to be perfect before we get into heaven; He asked that we repent of our sins and follow His Son Jesus to whatever ends we are lead. We can't beat ourselves over the head because we aren't perfect. Only Jesus is perfect! We have to be willing to forget our mistakes and not dwell on them. We must move on so that we can grow closer to Jesus and help others along the way. We can't do that when we're burdened because of our pasts.