Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Forgiveness

...Forgiveness means refusing to make them pay for what they did. However to refrain from lashing out at someone when you want to do so with all your being is agony. It is a form of suffering. You not only suffer the original loss of happiness, reputation, and opportunity, but now forgo the consolation of inflicting the same on them. You are absorbing the debt, taking the cost of it completely on yourself instead of taking it out on the other person. It hurts terribly. Many people would say it feels like a kind of death. Yes, but it is a death that leads to resurrection instead of the lifelong living death of bitterness and cynicism.
-Dr. Timothy Keller-

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Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

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{Needed....to....be....reminded.....of....that....today...}


4 comments:

Linsey Harms said...

many thanks for this post! struck a chord with me that i needed desperately to listen to. thanks for the encouragement when dealing with this "suffering".

Sallinger said...

That's a powerful one, thanks for sharing!

T.S. Webb said...

No small take away from this post. Recently remembering myself. Often have to revist also.

Messy and Wonderful said...

I'm with you. Hard words to live out.