Forgiveness · 9:16pm May 20th, 2016
(Modernized version of the Unforgiving Servant parable. Disclaimer; I had no part in making this video, I only intended to use it here for the purposes of this blog.)
Forgiveness. It was something Jesus chose to focus on, as whether or not one forgives others shows whether one contains love or hate in their hearts.
It is difficult to forgive people who have wronged us or stiffed us or ignored us. I'm not the best bastion of forgiveness, I know that. I've felt, shall I say angry, over certain posts and insults I've suffered in blogs posted in a group whose name I will not mention for the purposes of this discussion.
We see the fruits of hatred every day. People are ruined and suffer cruelty at the hands of others; families are torn apart and friends end up despising one another for the actions of one, the other, or both. The pages of history are blood-spattered with smoldering hatred; in particular, Yugoslavia during the Axis occupation was a bloodbath, as Croatians, Serbians, and Muslims killed and destroyed in an orgy of pent up loathing, and India, during the pre-independence and early independence period was marked by mass killings between various groups. These are only two examples of what hatred and unforgiveness do when left unchecked. More commonly, it festers among us as individuals, as people refuse to forgive even the smallest of slights and hurts. Currently, there is a massive war (AKA World War Bee) on EVE online that has caught my attention (as I am a video gamer myself, hence the interest), as entire alliances and corporations band together in order to destroy a group that, due to its heinous acts, has been hated for years by the EVE community.
The wages of sin is death. And the worst is hating one another. I ask you all to forgive one another, to ask others to do the same. Forgiveness isn't the act of dropping justice, but rather choosing not to let the acts or behavior of the other person or group interfere with our thought process on them, and choosing, especially to love them in spite of what we've done to us. Max Lucado's book He Chose You (which is targeted toward a teenage audience) has a few choice words in this respect;
"Look at what they've done to me!" we say and point to our hurts.
"Look at what I did for you," God says, pointing to the cross.
I am not saying that what the other people did or said or acted is necessarily good. What I'm saying is to forgive them, not just outwardly, but deep down, in your hearts. To not hold their sins against them anymore. Let go of your hurts and hatred, and let love flourish in its place. No, its not easy, but then a lot of necessary things aren't.
I won't waste anymore of your time. I just felt that this had to be said, as its a message, or at least a focused message, that I've not yet really concentrated on. Freely have we been forgiven; freely forgive. But I leave the decision up to the reader.
May God bless you all.
i am not into forgiveness and i admit that because of many many many reasons
Spot on laddie, spot on.
S.W.B.
3959646
Why ever not?
3961223 history for an example and the way my life was so far
3960843 Thank you.
3961644
Your welcome laddie, and I hope your days been fare so far.
S.W.B.
3961473 I know I haven't gotten back to you for over a day, and I apologize.
During the Rwandan Civil War, there was a mass genocide perpetrated by the government meant to cull the Tutsi tribe, which was believed to be aiding a rebel army (that ultimately did end up winning). The whole things started when a government plane carrying the president of the country and his wife down; no one knows for sure who is responsible, but the Hutu tribe, which had control of the government, blamed the Tutsi and began the slaughter of almost a million people. During this time, a Catholic woman and several other women hid in a tiny bathroom for 91 days; the Catholic lost her mother, father, and brothers to the murderers, some of whom had been neighbors.
For a long time, she wasn't able to let go and forgive, to the point where she modified the Lord's Prayer to leave out the part about forgiveness. However, eventually, after meeting with some of the perpetrators, she made up with them, managing to forgive their actions. She later wrote a book, called Left to Tell; Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, detailing her ordeal.
It takes a great amount of strength to do forgive people who that. I don't know what's been going on in your life, and I'm going to pretend I know. But I don't believe that forgiveness of other people to be impossible. Difficult, definitely. But never impossible.
I won't waste any more time. You are free to make the decision, as all are.
3964149 have you heard about the war that started last month the turks tred another genocide on the armenians but they managed to defeat them and forced the to cease fire and do you what the allies and soviets did to germany after ww2? or what the french,brits and belgians did to the country after ww1? and lets just say my life never was pretty and it still isnt which resulted in me getting thoughts about joining a religion (i am a agnostic currently) and becoming a almost fanatical patriot
3964149 and belive me germany is current f*cked up too thanks to our chancellorand many other reasons and nationalsocialism is on the rise again,police refuses at some places to move against riots and protests,people are attacking and sending death threats to politicians and many male refugees commit serious crimes and our military gets turned into a total joke oh an free speech doesnt exist here either
3964794 Germany hasn't been an easy place to live in the past century, I know that (Versailles was an abomination). Believe me, I think, or am tempted to think, the same of US politicians as you do your own.
I can't make you forgive people. I can only ask.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I'm grateful that you're at least taking a serious part in this discussion.
3965339 its not a question of if something (most likely bad) is going to happen but its a question of when and the refugee crisis only helps t lit the flame but atleast i count as a highly gifted person and can learn launages quickly currently i speak english,german,latin,italian,swedish,korean,dutch,dansk,russian,japanese,russian and some others maybe
Not a bad knowledge of languages