Deconstructing the Spirit of Forgiveness: So What Is It?
Forgiveness is a topic that comes up a lot on religion and spirituality blogs.
What is it?
What do we do when we forgive – how do we feel, what do we think, who is it for? Does the word “forgive” cover a host of sins, so to speak, so that it means different things under different circumstances, or does it refer to something quite specific?
I’ve seen this subject approached from lots of different directions and may construct follow up posts from your comments . . .
What is it?
What do we do when we forgive – how do we feel, what do we think, who is it for? Does the word “forgive” cover a host of sins, so to speak, so that it means different things under different circumstances, or does it refer to something quite specific?
I’ve seen this subject approached from lots of different directions and may construct follow up posts from your comments . . .
Posted by Paul at 12:07 AM Permalink
12 Comments:
The reason I cannot forget is to protect myself from being hurt by you again in similar circumstances. I can forgive because I don’t want to take revenge.
Forgiveness fundamentally means “not taking revenge”. There are societies characterized by their vengefulness, and others which are naturally forgiving. In the one case, they have death penalty, or very cruel punishments. In the other case, they don’t take revenge because it would interfere with a natural healing process that we call redemption.
Revenge is such a destructive force in the human breast that great efforts have been made by societies to deflect or outlaw it. “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay.” That Biblical saying must have arisen from a culture of individual or tribal vengefulness.
I would suggest that a natural follow-on post, Paul, would be on the topic of sin, which I have purposely excluded here.
sometimes we forgive very easily sometimes we don't....but all events have their own parts...someday we forgive everyone...forgiveness i think can be said to an action where we return the unnecessary stuff the other person gave to us...
I like to be a discerning about who I can forgive...I like it al la carte. For instance most people would never forgive Hitler but will cut their best friend some slack...
unless he stole your beautiful girlfriend in high school and then married her after graduating from Harvard Law and made you stand up as the best man in order to witness the spectacle of your failure firsthand and then they saunter off and lived happily ever after in a huge house with four perfect kids and family vacations to Hawaii every year..aaaaarrrgghhh..
OK most of us will forgive their puppy for chewing their slippers.
Don't worry I made up that best friend thingamabob.
Forgiving to me, is letting go with no expectations.
Great post Paul. Timely also.
I blogged about it once back on my old myspace blog. (I hope that link works. It very will may not.)
I'll let them keep coming for now and in my next post, will look at what we came up with and what sorts of questions or loose ends might be left.
I think I'll try copying and pasting the whole thread on a Word doc, deleting all your names, then organizing by themes without reference to who wrote what.
There should be a name for this. Maybe it will start a trend - "Postable Threads -?"
Forgivness is essential to our continued positive growth.
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