Sometimes the challenging path to healing is not hard to find, but it is within in our grasp, one decision away. It doesn’t mean the process to healing is easy, but it is attainable. Hear Cristin Spriggs’ story about her two-fold journey to forgive her father for absence and neglect when she was a child and finding a family (his family) she never knew. Cristin shares a powerful testimony of forgiveness that released her into healing and wholeness. In this process, she was able to connect with her father’s side of the family which is of Indigenous background, the Lumbee Tribe.

Forgiveness is not about letting those who offend us off the hook, but about letting ourselves off the hook. Our souls carry the weight and burden of unforgiveness that hinders growth. Forgiveness has the potential to lift that weight. Entering relationship with the family she never knew contributed to lifting that weight. She learns that her gift of hospitality is in her blood. The hospitality she received affirmed her. The soil she digs with her hands as she gardens is in her blood as well. It is connected to her father’s love for trees and his landscaping business. The soil she digs is also connected to her people’s land, this land that was taken from Native People. As she says about her people, "Lumbee people are cultivators of the land."

She offers hope for healing during this holiday season and beyond with the simple practice of forgiveness. This is not an overnight achievement, but a beautiful, messy, and painful process. Be invited to this process in your own life if/where there is the need to forgive someone so that you can experience more wholeness.

____________

Phil Allen, Jr. is a Los Angeles-based author, poet, social justice activist, and filmmaker. Allen’s book Open Wounds explores the murder of Nate Allen—Phil Allen’s grandfather—in the Jim Crow era of South Carolina and how that traumatic event resonated through generations of his family. Open Wounds – which is based on the Allen-produced documentary of the same name – was published on February 9, 2021. Allen is a Ph.D. candidate studying Christian ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

Rate