GROUNDED: When You’re Too Hurt to Keep Flying (Part 2)

In Part 1, we talked about grounding the plane.

When something breaks, you don’t keep flying. You land. You assess. You repair. Because pretending nothing’s wrong eventually leads to a crash.

But grounding isn’t the end of the story.

You don’t live on the runway forever.

You heal so you can fly again.

And if you’re going to heal the right way, it’s going to require one thing most of us resist:

Forgiveness.

Let’s be clear.

1. Forgiveness Is a Choice

Forgiveness isn’t a feeling. It’s not saying it didn’t hurt. It’s not excusing what they did.

It’s choosing to release someone from the debt you feel they owe you.

You don’t wait until you “feel ready.” If you do, you’ll be waiting a long time. You forgive by faith. Your emotions will catch up later.

If you let your feelings lead, you’ll stay grounded longer than necessary.

Your choice is what moves you forward.

2. Forgiveness Flows From Who You Are Now

Under the old covenant it sounded like: “Forgive… or else.”

Under the new covenant it sounds like: “You’ve been forgiven… now live from that.”

You don’t forgive to get forgiven. You forgive because you already have been.

Colossians says we forgive as those who have been forgiven.

Bitterness doesn’t look dramatic. It’s quiet. It hides. It grows under the surface. It shows up in your tone, your tension, your replaying of conversations, your short fuse.

You think you buried it.

But buried things grow.

Forgiveness uproots it before it poisons everything else.

3. Forgiveness Is for Your Healing

You don’t have to “forgive and forget.”

You may never forget. Some wounds run deep.

But you can refuse to re-attach yourself to the offense.

God says He remembers our sins no more. That doesn’t mean He forgets. It means He refuses to reconnect your past to your present.

That’s what forgiveness does.

The memory might stay. But the sting fades.

That’s healing.

If you stay grounded in bitterness, you’ll never fully fly again.

But when you forgive… not because you have to, but because you’re free enough to… something breaks loose inside you.

You’re no longer chained to the moment it happened.

You’re no longer flying with hidden damage.

You’re repaired.

And when the time is right?

You take off again.

Not pretending. Not ignoring. But healed.

My prayer for you is that you don’t just survive what hurt you… you actually heal from it.

And when God begins restoring the places that were once broken, I’d love to hear your story.

BEN DAILEY

www.awakenchurch.ac

benwdailey@awakenchurch.ac

972.261.1919

LEAD PASTOR