No Future Without Forgiveness - Desmond Tutu
That is my first book for 2013.
Phenomenal wisdom, to say the least. I always thought I'd got a grip on this concept of 'forgiveness', until I read Desmond Tutu's account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work in South Africa.
The '70 X 7' rule in the Bible has always made for interesting reading, but in the case of South Africa, some of the atrocities to be forgiven, even once, were heavy burdens - to bear or lay down - depending on which side of the understanding you look at it from.
I now think I understand a little bit, what Jesus meant when at the cross, he prayed "Father forgive them. . ." It was a phenomenal act of forgiveness.
Tutu's account helped me to look deeper into me and realize that I don't really know myself as well as I thought I do. "There is an awful depth of depravity to which we can all sink, that we do possess an extraordinary capacity for evil. . . " or ". . . the nobility of His human creatures, their compassion and generosity to others. . . the integrity and courage of those who have stood up to tyrants, who have been willing to die for their faith . . . ". The capacity for enormous good as well as immense evil resides side by side in this one creature. I now know a little more about what it means to be created in the image of God - the God who could both lovingly rescue his chosen ones from Egypt's captivity as well as destroy all the first-born of the Egyptians, human and animal alike.
This is a humbling realization. One that completely takes my pride away from me and makes me exclaim with Tutu that "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
Both repentance as well as forgiveness cost each party dearly and are not to be taken lightly. Both bring enormous healing when done in sincerity, even when not reciprocated. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting or condoning what has happened, it is not being sentimental. It means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin, but it is a loss which liberates the victim; it means taking seriously what has happened, empathizing with the perpetrator and appreciating the sort of pressures and influences that might have led them to do what they did.
I am grateful to Tutu for sharing a lesson that has taken him a lifetime to learn: 'We should be a great deal more modest in any claims we make about our prowess and our various capacities. Even more importantly, we should be generous in our judgements of others, fore we can never really know all there is to know about another. A humbling way to start the year, indeed.
Phenomenal wisdom, to say the least. I always thought I'd got a grip on this concept of 'forgiveness', until I read Desmond Tutu's account of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work in South Africa.
The '70 X 7' rule in the Bible has always made for interesting reading, but in the case of South Africa, some of the atrocities to be forgiven, even once, were heavy burdens - to bear or lay down - depending on which side of the understanding you look at it from.
I now think I understand a little bit, what Jesus meant when at the cross, he prayed "Father forgive them. . ." It was a phenomenal act of forgiveness.
Tutu's account helped me to look deeper into me and realize that I don't really know myself as well as I thought I do. "There is an awful depth of depravity to which we can all sink, that we do possess an extraordinary capacity for evil. . . " or ". . . the nobility of His human creatures, their compassion and generosity to others. . . the integrity and courage of those who have stood up to tyrants, who have been willing to die for their faith . . . ". The capacity for enormous good as well as immense evil resides side by side in this one creature. I now know a little more about what it means to be created in the image of God - the God who could both lovingly rescue his chosen ones from Egypt's captivity as well as destroy all the first-born of the Egyptians, human and animal alike.
This is a humbling realization. One that completely takes my pride away from me and makes me exclaim with Tutu that "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
Both repentance as well as forgiveness cost each party dearly and are not to be taken lightly. Both bring enormous healing when done in sincerity, even when not reciprocated. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting or condoning what has happened, it is not being sentimental. It means abandoning your right to pay back the perpetrator in his own coin, but it is a loss which liberates the victim; it means taking seriously what has happened, empathizing with the perpetrator and appreciating the sort of pressures and influences that might have led them to do what they did.
I am grateful to Tutu for sharing a lesson that has taken him a lifetime to learn: 'We should be a great deal more modest in any claims we make about our prowess and our various capacities. Even more importantly, we should be generous in our judgements of others, fore we can never really know all there is to know about another. A humbling way to start the year, indeed.
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