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How Can I Possibly Forgive Nancy Beach
How Can I Possibly Forgive
“Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins
against us.”
Luke 11:4
How Can I Possibly Forgive
Hurts that Create a Crisis of Forgiving:
1. Personal 2. Unfair 3. Deep
from Forgive and Forget, by Lew Smedes
How Can I Possibly Forgive
Few reactions are more elemental to human nature than the impulse to take revenge, to punish someone who has done us harm. This reaction is automatic,
instantaneous, and reflexive in human nature. It’s known as the talionic impulse. That term comes
from a root word that means “to punish in a way that exacts a penalty corresponding in kind to the crime… as in the principle of an eye for an eye.”
From this root we also get the word retaliate.
When You Can’t Say “I Forgive You”, by Grace Ketterman and David Hazard
How Can I Possibly Forgive
Dear Mary, …Do you know, only a few weeks ago I realized suddenly that I had at last forgiven the cruel schoolmaster who so darkened my childhood. I’d been trying to do it for years; and like you, each time I thought I’d done it, I found, after a week or so it all had to be attempted over again. But this time I feel sure it is the real thing…
Yours, Jack
How Can I Possibly Forgive
Forgiveness is NOT: • Instant or easy • Condoning or excusing the wrongdoer • Dependent on punishment • Ignoring justice • Being a doormat • A guarantee of repentance or reconciliation • Never remembering any part of the offense • Impossible
How Can I Possibly Forgive
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
How Can I Possibly Forgive
It takes one person to forgive. It takes two to be reunited.
Forgiving happens inside the wounded person.
Reunion happens in a relationship between two people.
We can forgive a person who never says he/she is sorry. We cannot be truly reunited unless he/she is honestly sorry.
We can forgive even if we do not trust
the person who wronged us not to wrong us again. Reunion can happen only if we can trust
the person who wronged us once not to wrong us again.
Forgiving has no strings attached. Reunion has several strings attached.
