Forgiveness

A long time ago, in a very different place, this blog was born. It was mostly created out of necessity, but it was also to share with you my insights about forgiveness, and what God thinks about it. It's sort of morphed into a smorgasbord of less important things since then, but I came across this wonderful story in the Guardian, via The Week, and thought it was worth sharing.

In essence, Joanna Nodding was a rape victim who chose to forgive her attacker. There doesn't seem to be any religious or spiritual inclination, just the understanding that forgiveness sets us free. She met her attacker through the restorative justice programme - an excellent initiative that says that prison and condemnation is not the only or the best way to bring justice. She says

"As the meeting was finishing I was asked if there was anything else I wanted to say, and I gave him what I’ve later come to think of as ‘a gift’. I said to him “What I am about to say to you a lot of people would find hard to understand, but I forgive you for what you did to me. Hatred just eats you up and I want you to go on and have a successful life. If you haven’t already forgiven yourself, then I hope in the future you will.” I didn’t say it to excuse what he did, or to minimize it, but because I wanted myself to be free of that burden of grievance, and as importantly for me, I hoped Darren could learn, move on, and forgive himself."

Read more here and here.

That second link is to a wonderful website called theforgivenessproject.com. It has no political or religious affiliation, it is 'merely' a collection of people who see forgiveness as important. Important enough to share with the world.