Well, most of you will remember several days ago I wrote a blog on how I was struggling with forgiveness towards a certain person.
First of all, let me say that things are much better. We had a good talk together the other night, and a lot of things were cleared up… things still aren't perfect, of course, but it is much better.
Some of you also may remember I posted a bit on about how much we assume in our world and in our lives. It rings with so much more truth in my ears, now.
Throughout the whole situation with this other person, I find out that wow, a whole lot of what I had perceived as ill intent was (surprise!) something totally different. Of course I won't get into details, ha ha, but I'm definitely learning… I can't even describe it. The only way I can is that I am so much less than I thought I was; I'm learning humility… and so many other things on top of that. I don't feel like dissecting my life on my blog (tonight, at least) but I can say one thing more:
Compassion and forgiveness work so closely together, don't they? The ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to see things from their perspective and unsterstand their view and experience of life… that can lend so much aid to forgiveness, at times.
I mean… think of it. Say you see a guy drunk out of his mind starting a fight on a street corner with an innocent-looking bystander. Yeah… you could be angry at him… first off he's drunk, and then he's taking out his anger on an innocent. Not cool.
What if you were that innocent, though, and knew everything about him? Knew that he'd been physically and sexually abused by his father growing up, never got on well with his peers at school and always got bullied, married a wife who cheated on him with and divorced him for a close friend of his? Because he'd never had a good father figure, he didn't know how to deal with the pain, and all his internalized feelings created a deep-set bitterness that he didn't know how to fix… he drank to numb the pain and he picked a fight just because he wanted to feel, for once in his life, that he was able to do something… when the rest of his life all he was rewarded with was abuse and pain?
That could totally change things. Instead of being broken by his display of deep hurt, rather we could read it for what it really is: a way for the man to deal with who he is and above even that, perhaps it is a cry for help, and we need to respond in love.
That's just an idea, it's up in the air, and certainly nothing close to a complete thesis in itself. But ti is a start (whether it's at the right beginning, I don't know).
Perhaps the people that we think least deserve our forgiveness are those who can benefit from it the most.
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Now playing: The Showdown – Hephaestus-The Hammer of the Gods
via FoxyTunes
