Forgiving is not about a reunion
...when a person close to us wrongs us, he throws up two obstacles between us. One of the obstacles is our sense of having been violated, which produces our anger, our hostility, our resentment. This is the obstacle that our forgiving removes. But only the person who wronged us can remove the other obstacle. And he can remove it only by repentance and, if need be, by restitution.
It takes one person to forgive.
It takes two to be reunited.
Wow - as simple as it sounds, this stuff is new to me. Taking it in slowly...
[Lewis B. Smedes, The Art of Forgiving (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996), pp. 26, 27.]
Posted by Ruth at 2/16/2004
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