forgiveness… July 18, 2007
Posted by admin in : Books, Christian Life, Life , add a comment“To relinquish the hold that the past has on us requires a conscious choice and, paradoxically, requires no strength, only courage. It necessarily involves forgiveness, not just of those that have hurt us, but also of ourselves, for the myriad mistakes, shortcomings and wasted opportunities that mark our lives”
“Forgiveness and justice are not incompatible goals. We can hold people accountable for their behaviour without imagining that evil exists only outside ourselves, or that life is as simple as we have been led to believe”
“Forgiveness is an act of letting go, of relinquishment. It is not something we do for others; it is a gift to ourselves”
Gordon Livingston ‘ And Never Stop Dancing ‘
We can hold on to hurts, pain, and disappointment caused by others in the hope that one day, somehow, they will pay, or we will get back at them. Forgiveness does not change the situation, it does not let the other off, it does not diminish responsibility. Forgiveness, correctly understood, frees us from a lifetime of backward looking, of wondering and hoping that things could have been different. It sets us free.