Nelson Mandela once said:

“As I walked out the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew that if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I would still be in prison.”

Mandela knew something about forgiveness. A large portion of his life had been stolen from him, and yet, in another sense, it was forgiveness that became the seedbed for all that followed, for everything he was later able to achieve.

Forgiveness is a theme we sing about often in church. We have many songs about God forgiving us, and rightly so. But perhaps we sing fewer songs about us forgiving others. And yet, every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we ask:

“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.“

There’s a conditional edge to that prayer which is deeply challenging. Forgiveness is not easy. When the hurt is real and deep, it can feel almost impossible.

This song began with a conversation with a friend of mine, R. T. Kendall, who has preached and written on forgiveness for many years. He’s written several books, but his best-known is Total Forgiveness. At one point he said to me, “Would you ever have a go at writing a song about forgiveness?”

I’ve always loved that kind of challenge.

So I went back and reread the book, drawing out its central themes, and began trying to shape them into a song, not a statement, but a prayer. Because forgiveness isn’t something we simply declare; it’s something we ask for help with.

One of the things that struck me most is that forgiveness is rarely a one-off event. Where there has been deep hurt, forgiveness is an ongoing choice, a daily decision. It’s something we return to again and again, often placing the same pain back into God’s hands.

That’s why this song keeps returning us to the cross. At the cross, we see both the cost of forgiveness and the mercy that makes it possible. As we look there, we’re reminded that the forgiveness we struggle to extend is first a forgiveness we’ve received.

My prayer is that Merciful (At the Cross) helps us not only to thank God for His mercy towards us, but also to find the grace to extend that same mercy to others, day by day, choice by choice.

Because forgiveness, costly as it is, is part of the freedom God longs to give us.