I stood in front of his cage and did battle with the great beast.  He and I were locked in combat to see which one would blink first.  He was frozen in place, still as a statue as he held me in his icy and indifferent gaze.  Lucky for him I have a soft spot for large lizards with big claws, so I released him for my death stare and blinked a sympathetic blink.  As I snapped this photo I thought I could detect a smile stretching across his war ravaged face (He knew he was a lucky lizard to have escaped with his skin).

        Standing before his cage I tried to imagine what life would be like lived in a glass prison.  We call it a zoo, but I have to believe that it feels more like a jail cell than a wildlife sanctuary.  Thankfully I have never spent much time locked up in a prison made of bricks and iron bars.  I have spent all my days pampered by the freedoms we all take for granted.  I was born in the land of the free, where freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of religion is all I have ever known.

        Once my little lizard buddy also enjoyed freedom, but today he is confined to a 4 x 4 glass cell we call a natural habitat.  As I looked once again into his eyes I began to feel that we are not so different.  There have been times in my life when I have felt like a prisoner.  My father died when I was 12.  He got lucky at a poker game and was robbed and murdered for less than $200.  For the next seven years I lived in a prison of my own making.  The bars were made of hate, the floor was composed of thoughts of revenge and the walls were constructed of an unforgiving spirit.

        One of the best days of my life was the day I chose to forgive those two men.  I remember feeling like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I could not believe the great liberty I felt the day I walked out of my cell a free man.  I had spent the last seven years in a self imposed solitary confinement and finally I realized that I had the key to my freedom the whole time; forgiveness.  Freedom is an option for us today because forgiveness is a choice.  Are you carrying a grudge today?  Are you harboring feelings of hate, revenge or resentment in your heart?  Set yourself free; place the key of forgiveness into the lock and walk away a free man.

Something to think about:

• There is no torment like the inner torment of an unforgiving spirit. It refuses to be soothed, it refuses to be healed, it refuses to forget.

• As we practice the work of forgiveness we discover more and more that forgiveness and healing are one.

• Forgiveness is a funny thing—it warms the heart and cools the sting.

• Forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it.

• He that demands mercy, and shows none, ruins the bridge over which he himself is to pass.

• Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it foregoes revenge and dares to forgive an injury.

• The heaviest load any man carries on his back is a pack of grudges.

• The voice of sin is loud, but the voice of forgiveness is louder.

• When you forgive you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future.

Thankful for all those who have forgiven me
Rickey Moore