Forgiveness

Forgiveness

“People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It's that hard.” 
 Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

Mandela was in prison initially here at Robben island

For myself, if someone has harmed me, I begin to think about them all the time and what I would like to do to them, expose them. They live rent free in my head and in essence become my higher power, my God. I do not want this person to be my God, my higher power. That is what brings me back to start the work of forgiveness. Yes, for me it is extremely hard work. Forgiveness is not forgetting. There are things we should never forget, the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, slavery, abuse, 9/ 11, Hurricanes Camille, Frederic, Ivan, Katrina, and now Harvey and Irma.

Walter Brueggmann1 writes about forgiveness especially from what we learn in the Old Testament.  He writes that forgiveness is made impossible in a system of deeds-consequence when deeds have an unbreakable tight predictable connection to consequences with no way out. This is the law, and if you break it, this is what will happen to you. Amen. This is the basis of much right-wing religious preaching of “hell, fire, and damnation,” trying to frighten people into a moral life. Brueggmann believes that forgiveness is only possible when we realize the astonishing readiness of God to reach beyond deeds-consequences, to offer continually to us unlimited restoration and extravagant forgiveness.  There is nothing, nothing that we can do for which God does not forgive us, and we are called to do the same. When we begin to lead a life of pardoning and newness, we start to see the world not through our grievances but through gratitude. It is a new life, a different life. We saw it in Nelson Mandela who forgives his guards of his 27 years of imprisonment as he walks out of prison. He tells others who are harboring resentments and grievances, “if I do not forgive them, I am still in prison.” Buddhists call it the Great Compassion.

1Walter Brueggemann, “The Impossible Possibility of Forgiveness,” Journal of Preachers, Pentecost 2015, pp. 8-17.

Joanna         joannaseibert.com

new glasses

The lens through which you see

“If you wear glasses, you likely often forget that they’re even there! Only when you take the lenses off do you realize how much your capacity to see is informed by the lens through which you are seeing or as Richard Rohr often says, ‘How we see is what we see.’”

Cynthia Bourgeault, The Shape of God: Deepening the Mystery of the Trinity, disc 2 (CAC: 2004) .

seeing our nation's capital for the first time with new glasses

Cynthia is using this story to teach us about the Trinity, but we can apply it to our everyday life. This is a good exercise for myself, you, and for those you are meeting with for spiritual direction if you or the person wears glasses.

Take off your glasses. Try to see at a distance or read a passage. Perhaps you will “see” or realize that what you “see” so depends on the lenses of your glasses.  Often our lens or how we see the world is through the lens of our work, family, need for prestige, desire for money or control or power, need to be in the spotlight or successful, obsessed with beauty, clothes, food, alcohol, drugs or other addictions that control our lives.  When our world or the sun is too bright, we need to put on sun glasses as Zoe and Turner are wearing. At other times if we are depressed or grieving, we truly may be seeing the world through dark glasses.  Meditate, pray about, and write down what are the lenses you use to view your family, friends, enemies, the world?  In our attempt to stay connected to God individually and in community our hope is that we will connect to the Christ in each other and the Christ in our neighbor and see ourselves and the world and others through the lens of the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).

Instead. Some say spiritual direction is helping someone become awake. Spiritual direction can also be putting on a new pair of glasses.

Joanna    joannaseibert.com

Books

Books

“Books are to read, but that is by no means the end of it… Even though you suspect you will probably never get around to some of  them, it is an honor just to have them on your shelves.

Something of what they contain gets into the air you breathe. They are like money in the bank, which is a comfort even though you never spend it. In the meanwhile, they are holding their tongues, even the most loquacious of them, even the most passionate… They are giving you time to find your way to them. Maybe they are giving you time, with or without them, just to find your way.”

Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words, pp. 48-49.

How wonderful to know that someone like Frederick Buechner also has books on his shelf that he has not read! If only I had read at least one third of the books on my many shelves. I hear about the books and excitedly order them usually with Amazon’s one click or call Wordsworth, our local bookstore! The books arrive in two days, they find a special place of honor at the top of a pile by my bed or desk, but when the pile approaches the height of the tower of Babel, the precious books become part of a great southern migration to one of the shelves. I spy them when I wake up in the morning in my bedroom or when I am at work in my office or in the den in my routinely painfully take in of the evening news. I fantasize about how wonderful it would be to pick up and read each of them someday. In my mind, I never give up on developing a closer relationship with them.

 I also recommend or give books to people I meet with for spiritual direction. When the person returns, he or she usually is much better than I. They have for the most part read the book and want to discuss how it helps them find God in their life. Each person teaches and reminds me over and over again about how much we have to learn from so many others who write consciously or unconsciously about their spiritual journey and how these writings often connect to our own journey.

Joanna                  joannaseibert.com