Unforgiveness and offense are such emotion laden topics where hurt can be so painful that we feel like we are caught in a tug-of-war with Satan where the pit feels like hell itself.

Sometimes we feel like we are on one side with our thoughts, feelings, and faith.  On the other side of that pit Satan is pulling hard, screaming to know your rights.  Reminding you that you’ve been wronged.  Yelling that you deserve to be as mad as hell.  Telling you to submit to your feelings, while covering the pit with some twigs and brush like a bear trap.

When we’ve been deeply hurt, betrayed or offended, we find ourselves in this horrible tug-of-war, that sometimes pulls at our psyche all day long and even into our dreams.   We cannot shake it.  How could they have done this to me?  What happened?  How awful?  We cry, we get angry, and we fight with these emotions.

So, without being trite, what if you had a way to simply let go of Satan’s rope!   To let him fall backward and out of your lives with his unforgiveness lies simply by refusing to play the offended game.  Believe it or not, we can do this by changing our perspectives on offense and entitlement regarding sheeple.  Yes, sheeple.

See, sheeple are people or events that can us mad or offended for any one of a thousand reasons.  Some of the big ones that come to mind include, that sheeple:

• Don’t think for themselves
• Don’t know how to drive
• Are not reliable
• Are lazy
• Are of the wrong political/religious/ideological persuasion
• Seem selfish
• Make mistakes
• Say the wrong things
• Are like sheep who just follow the herd – or the crowd

Yep – we like to think that those people are not like us…. Reliable, hard-working, good drivers, thoughtful etc.

So, WE call THEM sheeple.  We struggle with their actions and decisions and find them extremely hard to be around because, like sheep, they are oblivious or seem to follow the crowd from one thing to the next.

It might help our perspective on all these sheeple if we stop for just a moment to remember that Jesus called himself “the good shepherd.”   He likened himself to a shepherd who tended his sheep.   Remember, Jesus did not work with the religious leaders of his day to build a better church, but rather he worked with sheeple.   Yes regular people – like most of us.

What if, just knowing how Jesus loved the sheeple…. What if just knowing this, allowed us permission, some breathing room…  for the other guy’s mistakes and offenses.  When we come to realize that we too, are imperfect people, who are surrounded by other imperfect people, it can give us enormous freedom.

My dad always said that the best way to manage our expectations was to not expect too much.  Perhaps an even better way to look at this is to expect that most people are doing the best they can at that moment, and like us, they are trying to be their best.

Either way, these viewpoints will cause us to be occasionally delighted and rarely disappointed or offended.  What a freeing way to live!

In a previous article in our forgiveness series we talked about how Jonah was furious that God didn’t destroy the evil people from Nineveh, but see these amazing words to see how God responded to Jonah: “Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left?” (Jonah 4:11).

Look at that!  There is no doubt that God loves all of his people.  Even those from Ninevah who don’t know him, say the right prayers, or know the difference between their right and left hands.  God even loves people who wander around, get lost, follow the crowd, drive poorly, and make mistakes like sheep.

Perhaps if we recognize how we are all sheeple, some more, some less than others, we can try to be more like God and less like Jonah.  We too, can offer grace.  We simply let go of Satan’s rope and refuse to play the offended game with him anymore.

Choosing to give grace toward others, instead of being judgmental, harsh, and critical can give us enormous freedom!   Yes, it not only gives grace and mercy to others, but imagine how it can free us so we no longer have to be so hard on ourselves and everyone around us!!  What a big deal!

That’s why we want to bless you with our FREE, amazing book, “Why Wait To Be Happy?”  There is absolutely no time to waste – not even one day of being angry, upset or forlorn.  This book will guide you through the big questions and issues that Satan tries to destroy us with, by presenting Satan’s lies followed by God’s solution to those lies.