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As I prepare to travel to Amman Jordan for the Pathways to Peace conference next week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would take to realize global peace in my lifetime. (As the bumper sticker implores us, ‘Visualize Whirled Peas’) There seems to be an undercurrent of anger (rage?) in the world that makes this goal pretty remote. Mostly, I think, because without the world buying into the idea of forgiveness, the voice of vengeance will continue to scream louder and more consistently than any of us have the power or resources to silence.
“Once blood has flowed,” says Raymund Schwager. “It is as contagious as the plague; violence begets violence.”
In his book ‘Tomorrow’s God,’ Neale Donald Walsh says, “Humanity’s struggle is not a military struggle, it is a struggle for the mind. If it were a military struggle, then the struggle would be over, because the mightiest military would easily win. Yet your histories, and the world events to this very day, prove that the mightiest military cannot win anything. It can subdue, but it cannot be victorious.”
Subjugation and victory are not the same thing.
Only when you change people’s minds can you claim victory in the struggle to bring peace and harmony to humanity. And this will only occur when humanity understands that its problem is not a military problem. It is not a political problem, and it is not an economic problem. The problem facing humanity today is a spiritual problem.”
If the two thoughts above are correct, then I think the idea of ‘forgiveness’ is our greatest strength in realizing peace. Forgiveness clears the table and allows us to join each other in the present moment, looking around the world and asking: What in God’s name are we doing?!
Forgiveness. Hardcore forgiveness. Nothing less.
But when it hits your home that isn’t so simple is it? When you are the one who has suffered loss, that isn’t a concept that works so easily, is it? And in an insane world of destructive and unspeakable horrors committed by our own species against our own species, who wants to go first?
Maybe someone, or a group of someones, already have.
Have you ever heard the name Charles Roberts? Perhaps it rings a bell. While the media was sensationalizing the event of his actions, it totally whiffed on a story that could literally change the world.
Charles Roberts was the man who entered the Amish schoolhouse, shooting and killing ten young children. It was a massacre of incomprehensible proportions. They stood no chance. Their young lives were innocence personified if ever there were an example of it.
Would you like to speak to their parents about ‘forgiveness’? Would anybody want that task? Do we even have the right to ask such a thing?
In actuality, they would reach us first. They forgave. Every… last… one of them.
They took food to Robert’s mother and sought to comfort her. They spoke of a God who understands what we cannot even begin to fathom. They responded according to their understanding of such a God – God, to the Amish, is a God of love.
And because of this, they forgave, for when one understands the enormity of God’s love, there really isn’t any other option to think of – not a sane one, anyway.
9 comments to “Is There Room For Forgiveness?”
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Love your sentiments. I echo these thoughts with a chapter on forgiveness in Taming the Wolf. The book presents a spiritually transformative approach to conflict resolution.
Blessings on your Pathways to Peace journey. Would love to hear about the event.
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Beautifully said Tim. In the brutal violence of torture, and agonizingly cruel death Jesus forgave…only in forgiveness that baffles the depth of humanity will it find life. Only in forgiveness will be able to move forward…to be fully human. My prayers are with you. Shalom.
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At the inn in a lowly stall there is room for forgiven and peace with our sisters and brothers, our friends and neighbors, we have at times made room. This where we begin. And then it goes further to send peace out from among us, from within us, to all the rest of us.
There is room in another place for diversity of opinion, method, expression…. far beyond the limits of any sky. Where we grant forgiveness a place beyond our own familiar spot in this world; if we can find it even for ourselves, we can then share our peace with all.
Of course there’s not anything systematic about it. It can’t be forced and if our world leaders’ only way to make peace is through war, then obviously they’re limited and we must forgive them what they do. That’s hard for me to forgive even though I know it’s all they know. Government is not about spirituality. Spirituality is not about government. And in a circular logic, it makes sense to call peace a spiritual venture.
But we must make room for peace everywhere. And somehow it must be a free choice for all.
I love the experience of forgiveness by the Amish to the murderer of their children. They treated it as the anomaly it is rather than add their own possible versions of anomaly to the grief they have to still feel. The healing of such a response. May it be.
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Yes, vengeance, unforgiveness, whatever you want to call it, circles around the issue like sharks do at one drop of blood. Then all of a sudden at the weakest moment, GOTCHA.
Peace on the other hand is like dolphins in the ocean…always standing by to assist. Happy, animated, and harmless.
Alicia
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Tim, God speed to you my brother. Very well said. I too wonder if we will have true peace in my lifetime? I really don’t know if that is possible. But as with the Amish who lost so much on that day we all can have that peace in our heart that passes all understanding.
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“.. for when one understands the enormity of God’s love, there really isn’t any other option to think of – not a sane one, anyway.” Yes.
Praying your thoughts and words in preparation for your journey are being molded by Him and that you continue being an instrument in His hands.
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The third option. There is always a third option. The third option for peace in our world is segregation.
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I know that you are right Tim but, I still wonder if there is not a precise singular way in which the forgiveness must flow….a proper understanding of the gospel and God’s unbelievable love and forgiveness. If the forgivers forgive because of fear of punishment and obedient duty rather than a first hand understanding of God’s love and forgiveness then, is it real forgiveness? Will it impact over he long haul? It seems to me that there has to be a redefining of the process of God’s forgiveness…i.e., God’s ultimate reconciliation through Christ Jesus.
Go, in peace, my brother. There is nothing I can say to amend, addend, delete or improve this. My prayer for your trip is that “in those days, ten wo/men from every nation shall come and take you by the sleeve and say ‘we would go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’” God is with you. God be with you.
Vaya con Dios,
juanito