God gives us the gift of forgiveness; we need to give the gift to ourselves and to others.
I have several illustrations in mind, but I'm not sure which ones will make the cut. Here they are:
pat
Conroy, south of Beach: Chad Rutledge, the wealthy Charleston son
has hurt Trevor and Niles, two of the orphans. When Chad asks
forgiveness, Sheba, Trevor's sister, says Leo King has to forgive him
first. Leo ponders forgiveness: “ 'Father,' I[Leo] asked, 'do I
have to forgive Chad tonight? Or can I go on hating him for another
month or two?' 'Here's what yo don't know about time, son,' Father
said. 'It moves funny and it's hard to pin down. Occasionally time
offers you a hundred opportunities to do the right thing. Sometimes
it give you only one chance. You've got one chance here. I wouldn't
let it slip out of your hands.'” (401)
“A
number of studies have found that narcissists are less likely to
forgive others. The see others’ transgressions against them as a
debt and want them repaid. Narcissists are also less wiling to
forgive God for their problems or troubles in their own lives.”
the Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, Jean M.
Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, 245)
The
ability to learn to forgive is crucial for the destiny of this
planet. A man that has shown us the capacity to forgive is Nelson
Mandela. A friend of mine who knows him well said, "Mr. Mandela,
when you were released from prison, when you were let out of that
cell block, you marched across the yard to the gates of the prison. I
got my daughter up in the middle of the night to see the scene. As
you were marching across the courtyard, the camera zeroed in on your
face and I'll never forget your face. It was full of anger and
hatred, animosity. I have never seen so much anger and so much hatred
written on a man's face. That's not the Nelson Mandela I know today."
Mandela
said, "It's interesting you should say that because as I left
the prison block and marched across the courtyard, I thought to
myself, 'They're letting me go, but everything that was important is
taken from me. My cause is dead.'" He did not know that it was
not dead. He had been kept in solitary confinement. He did not know
he had become a folk hero. "My cause is dead," he said. "My
wife, they have taken her from me. My friends have been put to death.
Everything and everybody that means anything to me, they've taken
away. It's all gone and I hated them for it. Then I remembered what
Jesus said about forgiveness and God spoke to me and said, "Nelson,
for twenty-seven years you were their prisoner but you were always a
free man. Don't let them turn you into a free man only to make you
into their prisoner.' And I realized the importance of forgiveness."
Tony Campolo, “the hope that Came from Faith,” sermon and
interview broadcast, Chicago
Sunday Evening Club 30 Good Minutes,
November 7, 1999. www.csec.org.
"Amid
all the sensations that we seek and enjoy in a highly sensuous age,
there is one we have missed--it is the feeling of cleanness and
freedom that comes to those who know they are forgiven." Sam
Shoemaker.
Nevada
Barr, Seeking
Enlightenment Hat by Hat (20, 21):
Commenting on the passage where the disciples are told if they
forgive, then sins are forgiven. If they do not forgive, the sins
are retained. “to me it sounded not as if a power to forgive or
not to forgive was being bestowed but rather the apostles were being
reminded , perhaps warned, that every transgression they did not
forgive would be retained. Retained by them, by us, by me. Carried
by me, fed by me, watered, hauled from place to place by me. Or I
could forgive and be free….I realized what had been alive and
biting was not the original evil, but my oft-rehearsed, dearly held
memory of evil”
If you have a powerful story of forgiveness, send it to me.
Peace,
Richard
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