God Forgives, I Don't

Just because God forgives you, doesn't mean others will. Some people will always hold your past against you.
— Florida Made (@RichardMIATL) February 5, 2015

It should be easy to forgive, right? Depending on who you ask, you'll get various answers. Some people forgive quickly, others take time to forgive someone especially if the hurt was intentional and deep. There was a time where I would take a long time to forgive, but now I brush that off. My reason is that I refuse to give any clown that much power over me. They're keeping it moving while I'm sitting back looking crazy holding a grudge. One thing I've learned is NOT to expect an apology from anyone when they hurt me intentionally. This is for 2 reasons: 1. Their apology isn't sincere-Let's be honest, most people are only sorry for being caught, not for their mistake. 2. To shut you up-Some people will only apologize to you in order to get you out of their face. If someone keeps comes to me asking for an apology, then I'll PROBABLY apologize just to get them out of my face. I'm not that callous of a person because I respect people's feelings enough to understand that that's all they have. In other words, I'm man enough to apologize when I'm wrong because I want to sleep good at night.
A good example of this is Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg ran the streets as a youth and ended up in jail on attempted murder and assault charges. Some of his crimes involve harassing black children in Boston and blinding a Vietnamese man. He's paid for his mistakes and works with troubled youth, successful actor and restauranteur. By all accounts, he's changed his life. This black woman who was a victim of Mark's harassment spoke out against Mark Wahlberg saying "He was racist back then, so he's most likely racist now. He's not fooling anyone with his so-called redemption." Another woman spoke in favor of Mark's redemption saying "Everyone has done stupid things in their youth, stuff that they're not proud of. I believe in forgiveness." It's like this: You can do a 360 and some people will always hold your past against you. It doesn't matter what you did, not everyone believes in forgiveness. To quote one of Rick Ross' albums: God Forgives, I Don't. Just because God forgives, doesn't mean other people will; especially if you've slighted them in a major way.