"Is it too late now to say Sorry?"

Justin Bieber once asked, "Is it too late now to say, 'Sorry'?" ...all jokes that could be made aside, I wonder if sometimes it is.

When I think about the people who have inflicted the deepest and greatest wounds in my life, not a one of them ever gifted me with an apology. That does something to you. It certainly does something to the relationship, but it also does something to you. It's easier to forgive when one is asking for forgiveness, but even where it isn't asked for- forgiveness is still extendable. Forgiveness being that daily vitamin that one has to take over and over again until its nutrients overwhelm you and overtake you. But even where forgiveness has been and is continually being extended, that lack of an apology does something to you.

No one said, "Sorry" and therefore you were left alone. No one was on the other side of the hurt willing or wishing you to heal; in fact, there was someone on the other side who was omissive in your hurt. You had to become the bigger person. There was no hand offered to help pull you up the mountain of forgiveness in order to get closer to wholeness. (And for the record: Yes, I believe that Greater Love and The Healer is present and available to us in those times, how else could we climb, but I'm talking about human relationships here and no amount of godly presence can alter the pain of someone turning away- that loss demands to be felt and cannot be undone.) In not saying "sorry" they turned their back on your pain and that leaves a great deal in your hands to sort out and deal with.

And deal with it you did. You found your way (or are finding your way) up that mountain of forgiveness toward wholeness. You found your helpers and you found inner strength that you did not know you had. You found your way. That does something to you. You are not the same person. For better or for worse you are different and the lengths that you had to go to, the rocky terrain you had to face on your own, the darkness and despair you had to touch, taste, and feel- that does something to you.

At some point along that lonely mountain path you abandoned the need for "sorry", you found the strength to climb without it. At some point along that mountain path, those "sorry's" become invalid; they become more for the person who delayed the offering more than they could ever be for you at present.

I think about all the people who have inflicted the deepest and greatest wounds in my life and as much as I have clung to the injustice of their apologies withheld, I have no need for them anymore. To receive an apology would be a courtesy extended for their sakes, but the saying would be of little affect to me. Forgiveness has already been given whether they know it or not. For them to apologize and know it is given would be for their comfort and theirs alone. Why? Because I had to find mine another way. We all have.

And you know what? That's not the way it's supposed to be. That's not okay. That's not right. It's okay to be bothered sometimes. This is the harsh reality of freedom. We get to choose and there are consequences to those choices and not all consequences are felt by the correct parties in this life. Sometimes those consequences fall on the victims in a much harsher and more tangible and present sense than they do for the choice maker. Sometimes it is too late to say sorry. But if it's too late for sorry's perhaps it means you've arrived to some place of peace and there's encouragement to be taken from that. You made choices and that got you to the place you wanted to be even if all apologetic hands were denied. Despite someone else's choices to withhold, you now hold something precious and hard won. And that too does something to you.