Forgiveness

We are often held prisoner by our own attitudes and we go on punishing our self unnecessarily. It may not be possible for us to change the circumstances in our life but we can indeed change the way we respond to them. The difficulty lies in our trying to change conditions when what is really necessary is a change in attitude. The conditions we meet were set in motion long before we had the chance to experience them. We did this in order to have the opportunity to meet our self in new and original ways.

We have been helped and hindered, lauded and maligned. We have been the object of affection and hatred, the victor and the victim. Throughout these experiences we have striven to hold on to those experiences we found pleasant and escape those we found disagreeable. Try as we would, we may have found we could not change the difficult experiences and endurance was the only solution. However, endurance alone may well leave us resentful, fearful and distrustful, causing us to set in motion a whole new set of experiences to meet in our future.

Resentfulness is disempowering, draining us of the vitality that comes from hope and joy. It is a prison of our own making and one we need not endure. When we are wronged, feeling resentful is simply punishing the victim. At such times we can deal with the problem or absorb it. Absorption of the perceived wrong will almost surely lead to resentment as will trying to overpower the event. But we are not defenseless and we need not be the victim. How then do we constructively deal the pain resulting from ill treatment?

Forgiveness is the magic potion that will make a medicine of the poison. It is the most transforming life changing response we can experience. Instead of dealing with the conditions that left us wounded, through forgiveness we transform our self from victim to victor. The conditions then are changed from stumbling blocks to become stepping stones upon which we climb ever higher. Forgiveness has less to do with others than it does to our self. It is we who are changed by it and we who are set free from the cycle of fear and resentment. At the same time we may well awaken something better in the very ones that wounded us.

Love seeks to love and never to get even. Forgiveness seeks to be kind, to be gentle and requires nothing in return. Forgiveness never requires reasons, sets conditions or expects the response of others. It is a single act of grace that pours out from us upon others. With forgiveness events are not driven off but transformed in to blessings. With forgiveness we absorb blessings not maltreatment. With forgiveness we light up the world around us so that others may see more clearly in the dimly lit world around them.

May God bless you and may His tender loving kindness fill you to overflowing.