We Forgive Freely Or We Do Not

The Problem With Revenge Is That It Never Gets What It Wants; It Never Evens The Score. Fairness Never Comes. The Chain Reaction Set Off By Every Act Of Vengeance Always Takes Its Unhindered Course. It Ties Both The Injured And The Injurer To An Escalator Of Pain...why Do Family Feuds Go On And On?...the Reason Is Simple: No Two People, No Two Families, Ever Weigh Pain On The Same Scale.

Once We Have Forgiven, However, We Get A New Freedom To Forget. This Time Forgetting Is A Sign Of Health; It Is Not A Trick To Avoid Spiritual Surgery. We Can Forget Because We Have Been Healed. But Even If It Is Easier To Forget After We Forgive, We Should Not Make Forgetting A Test Of Our Forgiving. The Test Of Forgiving Lies With Healing The Lingering Pain Of The Past, Not With Forgetting The Past Has Ever Happened.

You Can Forgive Someone Almost Anything. But You Cannot Tolerate Everything...we Don't Have To Tolerate What People Do Just Because We Forgive Them For Doing It. Forgiving Heals Us Personally. To Tolerate Everything Only Hurts Us All In The Long Run.

Vengeance Is Having A Videotape Planted In Your Soul That Cannot Be Turned Off. It Plays The Painful Scene Over And Over Again Inside Your Mind...and Each Time It Plays You Feel The Clap Of Pain Again...forgiving Turns Off The Videotape Of Pained Memory Forgiving Sets You Free.

...forgiving Is Not Having To Understand. Understanding May Come Later, In Fragments, An Insight Here And A Glimpse There, After Forgiving.