forgiveness when it hurts (and seems impossible) to forgive

I just received a copy of a new book from Westminster John Knox Press called Change of Heart by Jeanne Bishop and cannot wait to read it. I have been looking forward to reading it since I heard her speak at a sales conference last year. While Bishop was incredibly engaging as a speaker (she is a defense attorney adept at swaying jurors), the message of her story was even more compelling. Here's the short:

Twenty-give years ago, a local teenager murdered her sister, brother-in-law, and her unborn niece/nephew. He was tried and convicted to a life without parole sentence. Jeanne was content to never think about the killer ever again. Then, after a conversation with a pastor, she realized that forgiveness  - at least forgiveness demonstrated by Jesus, was more than forgetting. It was about reconciliation. It was about transformation. It was about restoration.

As I sat listening to her, I frankly admitted to myself, "She is a better Christian than me." For all my views on war, violence, and Christian pacifism, I do not think I could ever forgive someone who murdered my family...I'm not sure I wouldn't end up in prison, myself. That's the point, though. It's what the author would even say. On my own, biblical forgiveness for even the smallest wrong is seemingly impossible. I may say I forgive, but I find my mind kneading the injustice and bitterness over and over again. Not to be pithy, but I really think the only way we can truly forgive someone is to have a "change of heart" and that change can only be wrought by the One who transforms our heart of stone into one of living flesh. 

I will be posting more thoughts as I read through this, but I can already recommend that everyone should read it. It does contain some emotional stories and imagery (as you can imagine a book about a murder might), but they only serve to show how much of a supernatural thing forgiveness truly is.


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - II Corinthains 5.17-21

The Daily Quotable

"I said the inmate's name. It felt strange on my lips, like a first cigarette or a word from another language. It was a name I had refused to speak for more than twenty years, a name I had wanted to be forgotten, consigned to a place where only God goes: the name of the person who had murdered my younger sister, her husband, and their unborn child some twenty-three years before. It was a name I'd sworn never to speak.

"But God had other plans."

-Jeanne Bishop, Change of Heart;  Westminster John Knox Press

The Daily Quotable

"Immortal, invisible, God only wise,

in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,

most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,

almighty victorious, they great name we praise.

"Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,

nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might: 

thy justice, like mountains high soaring above; 

thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

"To all, life thou givest, to both great and small.

In all life though livest, the true life of all.

We blossom and flourish like leaves on the tree,

then wither and perish; but naught changeth thee.

"Thou reignest in glory; thou dwellest in light.

Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight.

All praise we would render; O help us to see

'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee!"

 - Glory to God, Hymn 12: "Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise" (Westminster John Knox Press)

The Daily Quotable

"It is these earthly tendrils - the touch, the sound, the smell - that spool me in, bring me back to the simple, undeniable truth that all of us, inhabitants of sky and soul and garden, are infused with breath from one sole source. And it awakens me, pulls me to attention, more than all the clatter in a world that stands to lose the art of listening. It's some cathedral, the place in which I cast my morning prayer. And it's the breeze rushing off the lake that carries me to where I meet the heart, the hand of God."
 - Slowing Time, Barbara Mahany (Abingdon Press)

A Prayer for All Saints Day

"All thanks and praise be to you, most holy God, giver of all life. You made us for companionship and shaped you gave us your good earth and taught us to you established your law that we might learn and give you honor with our lives.
 "We forgot how to love; we ceased to give care and failed to abide by your life-giving law. You sent us prophets to call us back to you a when that was not enough, you came—Word-made-flesh, your very being— and overwhelmed us with love.
"And so we sing with all the saints on earth and all the angels in heaven: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest."

- Feasting on the Word Worship Companion, Year A Volume 2; Kim Long, editor (Westminster John Knox Press)

The Daily Quotable

"Think for a moment about all the good things religion gives us. Religion provides meaning, purpose, and hope for billions of believers. It builds significant relationships and faith communities. It gives people a sense of transcendence. It motivates people to care for others. It promotes responsible ethics and high ideals. It inspires music, art, and beauty. It fosters generosity, law-abidingness, and civic engagement, and even has healthy benefits. A world without religion would be a bankrupt, impoverished world."
 - The Answer to Bad Religion Is Not No Religion, Martin Thielen (Westminster John Knox Press)

The Daily Quotable

"[T]he parables of Jesus are best read in constant conversation with the world and its many forms of literature. They belong to the world because in some measure they belong to human nature. They may even be called "worldly" or "secular"; for God loves the world depicted in them with a vividness and humanity that only Jesus could fully express."
 - Reading the Parables, Richard Lischer (Westminster John Knox Press)