There Ain't No Justice
I only have two things to highlight from last Sunday.
The first is the line “whoever receives little forgiveness loves very little.”
(which to me seems to be an observation rather than a cause, otherwise Jesus would not love at all)
The second is a quote from Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs:
“Two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings are about forgiveness. A good third of Jesus’ parables are about forgiveness, directly or indirectly. Forgiveness has nothing to do with logic. It is the final breakdown of logic. It is a mystical recognition that human evil is something we are all trapped by, suffering from, and participating in. It calls forth weeping, humility, and healing much more than feverish attempts to root out the evil. The transformation happens through the tears much more than through threats and punishments.”
Speaking purely from the perspective of forgiving rather than being forgiven, I found I had quite a few stones to lay at the foot of the cross afterwards. None of them were because I’m deliberately holding onto unforgiveness, rather that I still suffer the consequences of those people’s mistakes. Sometimes I imagine myself confronting them with the results of their behaviour – it always makes me feel worse. Everytime I catch myself doing this now, I try to replace it with imagining myself forgiving them instead. Perhaps that sounds magnanimous, but it feels much much better. The world is a good place afterwards.
It seems to me that justice can never calculate an exact repayment – there’s always bitterness left afterwards. Only forgiveness seems to meet a debt in full.
I believe in speaking positive things, and putting something on a public blog that the whole world can read seems like a good way of commiting oneself to it, so here goes:
If you're reading this, and you know me (Steve Goble), and you've hurt me, whatever you've done I unconditionally forgive you.
After all, the past actually doesn’t exist.
Steve
The first is the line “whoever receives little forgiveness loves very little.”
(which to me seems to be an observation rather than a cause, otherwise Jesus would not love at all)
The second is a quote from Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs:
“Two-thirds of Jesus’ teachings are about forgiveness. A good third of Jesus’ parables are about forgiveness, directly or indirectly. Forgiveness has nothing to do with logic. It is the final breakdown of logic. It is a mystical recognition that human evil is something we are all trapped by, suffering from, and participating in. It calls forth weeping, humility, and healing much more than feverish attempts to root out the evil. The transformation happens through the tears much more than through threats and punishments.”
Speaking purely from the perspective of forgiving rather than being forgiven, I found I had quite a few stones to lay at the foot of the cross afterwards. None of them were because I’m deliberately holding onto unforgiveness, rather that I still suffer the consequences of those people’s mistakes. Sometimes I imagine myself confronting them with the results of their behaviour – it always makes me feel worse. Everytime I catch myself doing this now, I try to replace it with imagining myself forgiving them instead. Perhaps that sounds magnanimous, but it feels much much better. The world is a good place afterwards.
It seems to me that justice can never calculate an exact repayment – there’s always bitterness left afterwards. Only forgiveness seems to meet a debt in full.
I believe in speaking positive things, and putting something on a public blog that the whole world can read seems like a good way of commiting oneself to it, so here goes:
If you're reading this, and you know me (Steve Goble), and you've hurt me, whatever you've done I unconditionally forgive you.
After all, the past actually doesn’t exist.
Steve
posted by a cession-ite at 3:18 AM
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