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# 2021-12-21 - The Art of Forgiving by Lewis Smedes | |
# Introduction | |
But whatever the mind can make of the future, it cannot silence a | |
syllable of the past. There is no delete key for reality. [Only for | |
our evaluation of it.] | |
The only way to remove the [pain] is with a surgical procedure called | |
forgiveness. It is not as the forgiving were the remedy of choice | |
among other options, less effective but still useful. It is the only | |
remedy. | |
Forgiving, when you come down to it, is an art, a practical art, | |
maybe the most neglected of all the healing arts. It is the art of | |
healing inner wounds inflicted by other people's wrongs. | |
To do healing well, we need to know: | |
* What makes it work, | |
* Why we do it, | |
* What to forgive and what not to forgive, | |
* How to know when the time is ripe, | |
* Whether to resume a relationship again after forgiveness, | |
* Whether to tell the person we forgive that we've done it, | |
* How to know whether we have actually done it, and, above all, | |
* How to do it right. | |
We also need to clear up some false notions about forgiving. [Such | |
as the notion that] if we forgive someone for doing us wrong we are | |
exempting [them] from the demands of justice. | |
# Chapter 1, The Three Stages | |
[Not Larry, Curly, and Mo.] | |
When we forgive someone, we all perform the same basic transformation | |
inside our inner selves. This is why, for all of us, mo matter how | |
badly we have been hurt or when or why it happened, the remedy has | |
one name: forgiveness. | |
No two situations are exactly the same. And no two people feel | |
exactly the same way after they have been wronged. Each of us | |
naturally puts [our] special spin on the inner process of forgiving | |
the wrong. And each of us makes [our] own decision about how to | |
relate to someone after we forgive [them]. | |
Still, the fundamentals are the same for everybody. We all pass | |
through three stages of forgiving. | |
* We rediscover the humanity of the person who hurt us. | |
* We surrender our right to get even. | |
* We revise our feelings toward the person we forgive. | |
I have heard that 80 percent of what we see lies behind our eyes. If | |
this is so, 80 percent of what we see when we look at a person who | |
recently wronged and deeply wounded us must lie behind our eyes in | |
the memory of our pain. | |
As we start on the miracle of forgiveness, we begin to see our enemy | |
through a clearer lens... We begin to see a real person... We see a | |
bubble held aloft by the blowing of a divine breath. We see a human | |
being... | |
Forgiving our enemy does not turn [them] into a close friend... We | |
do not diminish the wrongness of what [they] did to us. We do not | |
blind ourselves to the reality that [they are] perfectly capable of | |
doing it again. But we take [them] back into our private world as a | |
person who shares our faulty humanity... human like us. | |
After we have been wronged--and wounded in the bargain--... no human | |
right seems more sacred than the right to get even... | |
What is the difference between [vengeance and justice]? Vengeance is | |
personal satisfaction. Justice is moral accounting. | |
Forgiving surrenders the right to vengeance, it never surrenders the | |
claims of justice. | |
We never bring closure to vengeance. In the exchange of pain the | |
accounts are never balanced. Vengeance by its nature cannot bring | |
resolution. | |
And when you get down to it, most of our getting even happens only in | |
our private fantasies. ... our opponent feels no pain when we attack | |
[them] in our dreams. But meanwhile, our fantasies become a catheter | |
dripping spiritual poison into our systems. | |
Surrendering our right to get even is the surrender of a very bad | |
pain in the neck. | |
Once we have rediscovered our offender's humanity and given up our | |
right to enjoy getting even, we begin to feel new feelings toward | |
[them] personally. We feel [the offender] differently after we see | |
[the offender] differently. | |
I have discovered that most people who tell me that they cannot | |
forgive a person who wronged them are handicapped by a mistaken | |
understanding of what forgiving is. They would have been helped a | |
lot had they gotten a clear picture of the process at the start. | |
# Chapter 2, The Sorts of Things We Forgive | |
Forgiving is a remedy for just one kind of pain. | |
Four general rules about what to forgive and what not to forgive: | |
* Forgive persons, not institutions. | |
* Forgive persons for WHAT THEY DO, not for what they are. | |
* Forgive persons for what they do to SERIOUSLY WOUND US. | |
* Forgive persons for what they do TO WRONG US when they wound us. | |
The problem with forgiving corporations is that they are legal | |
fictions. They do not exist in any flesh-and-blood sense. | |
[The problem with forgiving people for what they are is that] most | |
people are too complex and too murky for us to be sure of what we | |
would be forgiving them for. Forgiving is difficult enough. ... | |
better to narrow things down to something specific. | |
[Forgiving is] for the inner pain and boiling resentment brought by | |
the deepest cuts that we cannot ignore when they happen and cannot | |
forget after they have been sliced. | |
But if your friend betrays your trust, the pain you feel is wrongful | |
because you did not have it coming and because it is morally wrong to | |
betray a friend. | |
We all know that the only bonding agent that holds a personal | |
relationship together is trust. A relationship held together only by | |
a contract is not a personal relationship. A community held together | |
only by force is never a human community. Only trust holds personal | |
relationships together. | |
Trust is both the beauty and the fragility of being human. Our need | |
for trusting relationships is inborn, bred in the bone, part of the | |
human design. To break trust is thus to assault the law of life. It | |
is not only harmful, it is a deep moral wrong. | |
Forgiving is not meant for every pain people cause us. Forgiving is | |
for the wounds that stab at our souls, for wrongs that we cannot put | |
up with ever, from anyone. | |
# Chapter 3, Forgiving Does Not Mean Reunion | |
There are three reasons why the popular notion that forgiving and | |
reunion always go together is a major misconception: | |
* Forgiving happens inside the person who does it. | |
* Forgiving is not about reunion. | |
* Forgiving does not obligate us to go back. | |
Forgiving happens, as we have seen, inside our minds and hearts. | |
When we do forgive, we rediscover the frail, failed, bruised humanity | |
of the person we forgive and we give up our fantasy of revenge. We | |
treat the bounder as a fellow human being and wish [them] well. All | |
this can happen without giving the matter of restoring the | |
relationship more than a second thought. | |
I believe, however, that when a person close to us wrongs us, [they | |
throw] up two obstacles between us. One of the obstacles is our | |
sense of having been violated, which produces our anger, our | |
hostility, [and] our resentment. This is the obstacle that our | |
forgiveness removes. But only the person who wronged us can remove | |
the other obstacle. And [they] can remove it only by repentance and, | |
if need by, by restitution. | |
* It takes one person to forgive. | |
* It takes two to be reunited. | |
* Forgiving happens inside the wounded person. | |
* Reunion happens in a relationship between people. | |
* We can forgive a person who never says [they are] sorry. | |
* We cannot be truly reunited unless [they are] honestly sorry. | |
* We can forgive even if we do not trust the person... | |
* Reunion can happen only if we can trust the person... | |
* Forgiving has no strings attached. | |
* Reunion has strings attached. | |
Let us be clear that forgiving and reunion are not the same things; a | |
person can truly forgive and refuse to be reunited. | |
Three reasons why forgiving does not obligate us to go back: | |
* Reunion is sometimes impossible. | |
* Reunion is sometimes harmful. | |
* Reunion may be such a threat that it prevents a wounded person | |
from forgiving. | |
Forgiving happens regardless of circumstances; for a reunion, the | |
circumstances have to be right. | |
Being forgiven does not qualify a person to be a friend or a partner. | |
And if [they do not] qualify, we are better off to walk away and | |
heal ourselves alone. | |
# Chapter 4, Forgiving Does Not Mean Restoring | |
[People] sometimes get confused about the difference between | |
forgiving someone and restoring that person to the place [they] held | |
before... | |
# Chapter 5, Who Can Do It? | |
To qualify for forgiving we need only to meet three requirements: | |
* We need to bear the wounds ourselves. | |
* We need to know we have been wounded. | |
* We need to have an inner push to forgive. | |
Forgiving is about healing wounds. So only people who bear the pain | |
qualify for forgiving the person who inflicted it. Everyone else | |
should step aside. | |
The worst wounds I ever felt were the ones people gave to my | |
children. Wrong my kids, you wrong me. And my hurt qualifies me to | |
forgive you. But only for the pain you caused me when you wounded | |
them. My children alone are qualified to forgive you for what you | |
did to them. | |
Discerning people have an eye for moral differences. When someone | |
hurts them accidentally, they accept it as one of the risks of living | |
around clumsy people. But when they realize it was no accident, that | |
the person who hurt them knew what he [or she] was up to, they know | |
that they were not only wounded, they were wronged besides. This is | |
the kind of moral discernment that qualifies a person for forgiving. | |
We may FEEL wronged when in fact we are only wounded. | |
None of us forgives with 20/20 vision. And it is probably better to | |
forgive too much than to forgive too little. | |
But few of us are naturals at this game. We don't seem to be born | |
with the forgiveness gift. We need to work at it... | |
Forgiving has to come from inside as a desire of the heart. WANTING | |
TO is the steam that pushes the forgiving engine. | |
Where does the desire to forgive come from? I believe that every | |
ordinary human desire to redeem the past comes from God, the source | |
of all redeeming graces. So one way to get the desire is to be in | |
touch with God. | |
# Chapter 6, The Case Against Forgiving | |
The moral objection to forgiving rises from our moral instinct for | |
fairness. | |
Forgiving is wrong, some argue, because it is DISHONEST. In the name | |
of a cruel kindness, it denies reality. | |
Finally, some critics say forgiving is wrong because it CONTRADICTS | |
HUMAN NATURE. | |
But I also hoped I would have had the faith to invite him [the | |
repentant but seemingly irredeemable Nazi brute] to join me in asking | |
God to forgive him. | |
Why bring in God? ... when he murdered the children... he "murdered" | |
God with them. The difference is that God can survive his [or her] | |
own murder and live to forgive the person who cut his [or her] throat. | |
I did not then and still do not know what I would have done if Karl | |
had shot my own children as they tried to leap from a burning house. | |
... who can know for sure? | |
# Chapter 7, In Defense of Forgiving | |
Forgiving offers the best hope of creating a new fairness out of past | |
unfairness. Forgiving cannot happen without severe truthfulness. | |
Forgiving follows the impulses of our true and better natures. | |
* Forgiving someone who did us wrong does not mean that we tolerate | |
the wrong [they] did. | |
* Forgiving does not mean that we want to forget what happened. | |
* Forgiving does not mean that we excuse the person who did it. | |
* Forgiving does not mean that we take the edge off the evil of | |
what was done to us. | |
* Forgiving does not mean that we surrender our right to justice. | |
* Forgiving does not mean that we invite someone who hurt us to | |
hurt us again. [What about turning the other cheek?] | |
Almost every argument against forgiving assumes that forgiving means | |
what in fact it does not mean. | |
The heart of my answer to the complaint against forgiving is that | |
forgiving is the only way to get ourselves free from the trap of | |
persistent and unfair pain. Far from being unfair, it is the only | |
way for a victim to be fair to himself or herself. Far from being a | |
dishonest denial of reality, forgiving is not even possible unless we | |
own the painful truth of what happened to us. Far from being alien | |
to our human nature, forgiving dances to the melody of our true | |
humanity. | |
# Chapter 8, Because It Suits Us | |
On the other hand, some things are just not meant to be done simply | |
because it is our duty to do them. Some things are meant to be done | |
only because we want to do them. Some can be done for no other | |
reason. If we are not led to do them by our own inner impulses, they | |
don't get done at all. Or at least they will not get done well. | |
Forgiving is one of those things. | |
How do we explain this tension between doing what we ought to do and | |
what we want to do? | |
I think we will resolve this tension when we recall that there are | |
actually THREE KINDS OF "OUGHT." | |
First, there is an ought of OBLIGATION. But nobody forgives out of | |
obedience to authority... | |
Second, there is an ought we should follow because we will be better | |
off for doing it. Call it an ought of OPPORTUNITY. | |
Third, there is an ought that comes from being the kinds of people | |
[that] we are. Call it an ought of FIT. | |
We ought to forgive the way a spouse ought to make love, a sad person | |
ought to cry, a happy person ought to smile, a lyrical person ought | |
to sing, and a grateful person ought to say "thank you." We ought to | |
do it because it suits us so well. | |
We forgive when we discover that we really want to forgive, and we | |
want to forgive when we want to heal ourselves from the hangover of a | |
wounded past. And when we actually do forgive, we are only doing | |
what comes naturally to anyone who has felt the breath of forgiving | |
love on her [or his] own heart. | |
# Chapter 9, For Our Own Sake | |
I think forgiving works on both sides of the street. It is a | |
reciprocity. We do ourselves good only when we wish good for the | |
other. And we do the other person good only after we have healed | |
ourselves. Forgiving has to be both ego-centered and other-centered. | |
Otherwise it cannot work. | |
Serious pain is always ego-centric. [I agree. Otherwise, who feels | |
the pain?] | |
Check out the best-known scream of pain in history--Jesus calling | |
from the cross: "My God, My God, why have you abandoned ME?" | |
We need to get on top of our pain before we can get ourselves to do | |
some good to the person who caused it. | |
Forgiving has to heal our pain before it can heal anybody else's pain. | |
When we forgive someone who did us bad, sooner or later we desire | |
good things for the person who did it. This means that we can do | |
ourselves good only by wanting good things for the person who did bad | |
things to us. | |
Forgiving, like loving, gives us no choice between being | |
self-centered and other-centered. If I love someone only for my | |
sake, my love becomes sick, uncreative, [and] manipulative. If I | |
love someone only for his or her sake, my love becomes fawning | |
charity, [and] demeaning pity. It is the same way with forgiving. | |
We simply have no choice between self-centered forgiving and | |
other-centered forgiving. I can do you good by forgiving you only if | |
I do myself good by forgiving you. It is life's most [virtuous] | |
circle. | |
When we forgive we become our own good physician, and the remedy we | |
use percolates from the warm, breathing heart of the universe. | |
# Chapter 11, Forgiving People Who Do Not Say They Are Sorry | |
Forgiving under any circumstance is only for people who don't deserve | |
it. Being sorry for the wrong we did does not earn us a right to be | |
forgiven. How would it? There is no such thing as a right to be | |
forgiven. Forgiving flows always and only from what theologians call | |
grace--unearned, undeserving favor. Grace that is earned is not | |
grace at all. In an odd way, if we deserved to be forgiven, we would | |
not need to be. | |
And yet, when we realize that forgiving is the only remedy for the | |
pain the offender left us with, the only way to heal the hurt [they] | |
caused, we have an incentive to forgive no matter if [their] heart is | |
hard as flint. In short, forgiving unrepentant people is a no-lose | |
opportunity--difficult to do but with a harvest of healing. | |
Yes, we must be fair to ourselves. But are we fair to ourselves when | |
we prolong a bitterness that is shriveling our spirits? Are we fair | |
to ourselves if we let our abuser or betrayer or deceiver decide for | |
us when we may be healed...? | |
When we forgive someone who is not sorry for what [they have] done, | |
we do not forget, and we do not intend to let it happen again. | |
The person who hurt us should not be the person who decides whether | |
or when we should recover from the pain [they] brought us. | |
We cannot EXPECT to be forgiven without sorrow for the wrong we did. | |
Repentance does not earn the right to forgiveness; it only prepares | |
us to receive the gift. | |
# Chapter 12, Forgiving Ourselves | |
Forgiving ourselves is a tough nut to crack. Which is probably a | |
good thing. If forgiving ourselves was easy, chances are, we are | |
only excusing ourselves, ducking blame, and not really forgiving | |
ourselves at all. | |
We need to forgive ourselves because the part of us that gets blamed | |
feels split off from the part that does the blaming. We are exiled | |
from our own selves, which is no way to live. We are ripped apart | |
inside, and forgiving ourselves is the only way we heal the split. | |
We must pay for the license to forgive ourselves. We pay in the | |
currency of remorse. | |
The first thing we need to know when we try to forgive ourselves is | |
what is it that we are forgiving ourselves for. | |
* What we did, not who we are. | |
* Specific things we did. | |
* Wrongful things that we deserve blame for doing. | |
The feeling of being forgiven and the feeling of forgiving ourselves | |
are so much alike that there is no point in trying to keep them | |
distinct. | |
Say it out loud. Say it straight into the eyes of the reflection you | |
see in a mirror. You may feel like a clown. But do it anyway. If | |
you dare to say it, you have already begun to do it. | |
Forgiving is seldom done once and for all. It almost always needs | |
repeating. So say it a hundred times if you need to, say it until | |
the meaning begins to filter through your brain into your soul. | |
If you want to feel like a person who has forgiven herself [or | |
himself], do the sorts of impulsive things that forgiven people might | |
be inclined to do. Do anything nice that the practical part of you | |
will tell you is nutty. Celebrate the miracle you are performing on | |
yourself by creating a little miracle for somebody else. | |
# Chapter 15, Owning Our Pain | |
Forgiving is a remedy for pain... just our own. But no pain is | |
really our pain until we own it. | |
Ownership is a personal relationship. We own something when we take | |
personal responsibility for it. How do we do [that]? We take five | |
basic steps. | |
* We APPROPRIATE it. ... We make something a property of ourselves. | |
* We ACKNOWLEDGE it. We don't conceal it. | |
* We NAME it so that anybody can know what it is. | |
* We EVALUATE it. [We get a sense of its meaning], decide how | |
important it is to our lives, and what it would take for somebody | |
to get us to part with it. | |
* We [ASSUME] RESPONSIBILITY for it. [We generally] hold ourselves | |
answerable for what happens to it while we own it. | |
I learned that the more I disowned my feelings, the more they owned | |
me in hidden and subtle ways I did not recognize. | |
We alone can answer the question our pain asks: "Now that you are | |
stuck with me, what are you going to do with me?" Before we answer, | |
we can review our options. We begin to take responsibility for our | |
pain when we listen to its question. We begin to heal our pain when | |
we give the right answer. | |
# Chapter 16, Taking Our Time | |
But for serious wounds, we need to take our time. | |
People who have been wronged badly and wounded deeply should give | |
themselves time and space before they forgive. My advice? Follow | |
these five steps before you even begin to forgive. | |
* THINK -- Take time to focus on what actually happened. | |
* EVALUATE -- [Was it intentional? A pattern? How bad is the | |
wrong?] | |
* TALK -- Consult a friend or counselor. | |
* FEEL -- Take time to be alone with yourself [without | |
distractions] so that you can be in touch with what you feel and | |
put a name on what it is... | |
* PRAY -- [Be honest with the divine.] Admit you need help, ask | |
for it, and use it when it comes. | |
There is one more reason for waiting before we forgive. The | |
situation may not be ripe for it. | |
If we wait too long to forgive, our rage [and resentment] settles in | |
and claims squatters rights to our souls. | |
There is a right moment to forgive. We cannot predict it in advance; | |
we can only get ourselves ready for when it arrives. | |
# Chapter 17, We Don't Have To Say So | |
There are two good reasons why silent forgiving is sometimes better | |
than spoken forgiving. | |
* Not all of us have a gift for telling people that we forgive them. | |
* The people we forgive are not always ready to hear us. | |
Spoken forgiving, no matter how heartfelt, works best when we do not | |
demand the response we want. ... we must leave them free to respond | |
however they are inclined. If the response is not what we hoped for, | |
we can go home and enjoy our own healing in private. | |
# Chapter 18, We Don't Have To Put Up With It | |
Forgiving intolerable things does not make them tolerable. It is | |
precisely because they are intolerable that such a radical remedy | |
such as forgiving had to be found for them. | |
Assumptions about forgiving and tolerance: | |
* Some things are intolerable in and of themselves no matter how | |
mane people put up with them. | |
* Intolerable things are forgivable. | |
* Forgiving an intolerable wrong does not make it tolerable. | |
* Forgiving an intolerable thing does not mean we intend to put up | |
with it. | |
# Chapter 19, How Often? As Often As We Need To | |
* Forgiving is not an obligation. [It is an opportunity to do | |
ourselves some good.] | |
* Forgiving is not about letting people get away with something. | |
* Forgiving is not about staying with people who are hurting us. | |
We certainly need to set limits. But not on forgiving. It is abuse | |
we need to set limits on. | |
Forgiving is a gift, not a duty. It is meant to heal, not to | |
obligate. Use the fit as often as it takes to set you free from a | |
miserable past you cannot shake. | |
# Chapter 20, When We Are Not Sure We Have Done It | |
Recall that forgiving does not usually happen [all] at once. It is a | |
process, sometimes a long one, especially when it comes to wounds | |
gouged deep. And we must expect some lapses, the way long-term | |
investors expect some downs in the market. When it happens, stay the | |
course. And look at the downside as an opportunity to reinvest, do | |
it again, [and] get back in practice. | |
Your anger is a clear sign that you are in touch with reality. If | |
you still get angry after you forgive, let your anger protect you | |
from being a sucker for similar wounds in the future. | |
Forgiving is not anti-anger, anymore than love is anti-anger. | |
The enemy of forgiving is hate, not anger. Anger is aimed at what | |
persons do. Hate is aimed at persons. Anger is the positive power | |
that pushes us toward justice. Hate is the negative force that | |
pushes us toward vengeance. | |
The best source of help can be found in a group of fellow strugglers. | |
There are plenty of them about because not many people get far in | |
life without having been wounded unfairly. | |
# Chapter 21, Forgive and Remember | |
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a | |
deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a | |
new way to remember. We changed the memory of our past into a hope | |
for our future. | |
The answer to the problem of imagining a future we cannot control is | |
hope. | |
A few ways to do this: | |
* We remember the good parts of the bad past. | |
* We remember the past with truth. When we forgive, we get new | |
courage to recall what happened even though it wounded us badly... | |
We also dare to recall our own responsibility for what happened to | |
us, if we have any. | |
* We remember with a new respect for ourselves. | |
* We remember with sadness. | |
* We remember without illusions. | |
author: Smedes, Lewis B. | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Lewis_B._Smedes | |
LOC: BV4647.F55 | |
tags: book,non-fiction,self-help,spirit | |
title: The Art of Forgiving | |
# Tags | |
book | |
non-fiction | |
self-help | |
spirit |