I've been back from Mexico for a couple weeks now. Still, one of the fun memories continues to bring a smile to my face:
As Sofia and I were chatting that first Sunday I was there. We were chatting about how surprised Chava was to see me, and I shared how afraid I had been that he would have forgotten me. She put to rest any sort of irrational fear at that moment when she said (in Spanish), "Chava always looks at the picture of you and we ask him, 'Do you know who that is?', and he responds every time, 'That's 'mana Korrny. She loves me.'"
I still really like that. Especially because just about every time I look at his picture up on my wall, I think, "I love him." So it all comes full circle.
Totally aside from Mexico memories, I wanted to share a passage from Spotting the Sacred that has really impacted me and my thoughts lately:
How does one forgive? One can talk about forgiveness and argue for its importance on the basis of Scripture, but how do people forgive those who have hurt them, wronged them, abused them, or done evil against them or their loved ones? How do we move the idea of forgiveness from a theological belief to an action or decision that releases us from the bondage of hatred and anger?
To forgive another person takes a tremendous act of faith, because in forgiving we choose to surrender our need to control a situation to satisfy our longings and intentions. To transfer a situation or an event from our hands into God's takes a faith that goes beyond just lip service.
It may sound trite, but to make that kind of transfer requires one to believe that God has witnessed the wrong and that God will not dismiss that wrong as something trivial or significant. In the process of forgiving we say, "I give this situation to God and believe that in the eternal scheme of things, God's justice and grace will bring about a resolution better than I could ever make." To let go of our need to hit back, talk back, wall people out of our lives, retaliate, humiliate, malign, kill, or do whatever we desire allows us to trust God to bring about results in God's time. That then lifts us out of the realm of the temporal and places us in a realm governed by God. For most of us, no matter how serious we are about our faith, that kind of surrender is incredibly difficult. But it is possible. The results are glorious.
Food for thought....
