I have noticed in my own life
that people I don't like have power over me because I am always thinking about
them. They preoccupy me and have control over my thinking. I find myself
jealous, resentful, and vengeful. I lose peace. I am holding on to these people
as my enemies.
Loving our enemies is the way of
becoming free of our enemies. We free ourselves by letting go, by loving them,
by caring for them.
One of the most beautiful things
is that when we let the enemy go out of our heart by love and forgiveness, we
are suddenly free to let that unlimited, all-embracing love of God pour into
us. We become a new person every time we forgive an enemy, because we let go of
the angry person inside who was holding on to fear.
The core of our faith is to be
free people – free from the power we give to our enemies, free to love every
human being with the divine love that always forgives, seven times seven and
seven again. ~ Henri Nouwen
Forgiving and fiercely trusting
God, meet me in the messiness of my life.
I long for forgiveness to be like a pill I take for the aches and pains
I carry. I want the quick fix for all
that ails me. We live in a world of
microwaves and instant communication, why does the spiritual path have to be so
long, circuitous, and confusing!?! Every
Sunday, God, I pray for forgiveness to take hold of my life in the Lord’s Prayer. Do I really want that? Do I really trust forgiveness as a way of
life for me and for those around me? Or
do I just mutter and mumble the Lord’s Prayer because that’s what is in the
bulletin? Slow me down, focus my heart
on Your holy way of not holding grudges against others. Help me shred the cultural script I adopted
of eye for eye justice to create space to love my enemies. Guiding, abiding, providing God, let Your
presence pervade and persist in my heart, even in those cobwebbed corners of my
soul where I am not ready to forgive others or myself yet. Let Your patient presence be for me a truth I
trust as You and I co-author the story of life today. Amen.
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