{"id":24157,"date":"2024-09-10T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T13:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24157"},"modified":"2024-09-10T09:37:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T13:37:55","slug":"24157","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24157","title":{"rendered":"Forgiveness Is a Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sidewalk Prophets - Where Forgiveness Is (Lyrics)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n1qEF6RLb4A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Womanist theologian Karen Baker-Fletcher describes forgiveness<\/em>&nbsp;<em>as a source of healing that can help break repetitive cycles of hatred and violence.\u202f<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Forgiveness is grounded in love that demands justice.<\/strong> Forgiveness is a God-given grace that frees the sinned against to pray for the salvation of sinners to free the world from further hatred, violence, and desecration. <strong>Forgiveness is &#8230; the act of desiring divine overcoming of evil while also desiring the salvation of those who have been seduced by it<\/strong>. Forgiveness is grounded in a tough divine love that prays for the power of righteousness to persuasively, powerfully move sinners into righteousness against all visible odds so that evil is overcome.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, hatred desires the permanent annihilation of the other. Hatred has a negative capacity to infect the souls of well-meaning people of faith and the faithless alike when they are on the receiving end of sin. Hatred tempts the hated to hate. <strong>Forgiveness frees the sinned against, liberating them from continuing the cycle of hatred they have experienced. <\/strong>The pain of woundedness in forgiveness does not simply evaporate. That would be a denial of creaturely and divine humanity. <strong>To the contrary, the pain remains but is transformed into the healing force of compassion for a deeply wounded world and to joy wherever a witness to healing appears<\/strong>. [1]\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Through their work in social justice movements, embodiment teacher Prentis Hemphill names the inherent strength of a conscious act of forgiveness.&nbsp;<\/em>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forgiveness and grace have much more to offer any culture than we give them credit for. They are rare sightings these days, yet where I have seen them, when I\u2019ve been offered them, I realize that they are not the weak, pitiful emotions of people who don\u2019t value themselves. <strong>They are the generous gift of people who know their worth cannot be diminished or compromised. When we offer grace or forgiveness, we refuse the false correlation between our worth and actions.<\/strong> But I\u2019m not speaking about the kind of grace or forgiveness that coddles or panders. We don\u2019t forgive out of our own desperation for another person; <strong>we forgive to invite one another back into our highest selves, back into our commitments. <\/strong>There is an acknowledgement that someone has been wronged or hurt, and forgiveness extends the possibility of trying again. I have struggled my way through forgiveness and grace, just as most of us struggle with them because of how often our hearts have been broken and how often we\u2019ve been betrayed. I think it\u2019s important for us to heed the warnings. Maybe eventually we can all learn to forgive far and wide, the way religions have taught. But for me to think of it that way is too tall an order. <strong>Maybe now we only need to forgive close in, nearby: the people in our families and our communities, the people we struggle alongside. Rather than denounce mercy, we try it in small doses. From there maybe forgiveness and grace spread and cover us, become more of the air we breathe.<\/strong> [2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>===================+><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Psalm 116: Filling One Another With Courage<\/span><\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"15\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=adc32e8c1d&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=d9a896eded&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\">Click Here for Audio<\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=432ce2e98a&amp;e=f52fc38132\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"auto\" height=\"35\" src=\"https:\/\/mcusercontent.com\/87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9\/images\/b66516eb-1f2d-8d90-0e02-d4223f78f6f7.png\"><br>       I\u2019m increasingly hearing Christians question the value of their churches\u2019 Sunday gatherings, and churches embracing online streaming services has only accelerated the discontent. I wonder if earlier generations were equally frustrated with the church, but carried a greater sense of duty to persevere. Or perhaps there was simply greater social pressure to attend church which in many communities has now disappeared. Regardless of the cause, if we are serious about our faith but struggling with attending a church gathering, then at some point we must wrestle with what Scripture says about it.The writer of Hebrews clearly instructs believers to \u201cnot give up meeting together\u201d (Hebrews 10:25), but we often overlook why we\u2019re supposed to meet. The writer of the letter could have listed many reasons for gathering\u2014to offer our worship to God, to learn sound doctrine from our teachers, and to be equipped for our mission as Christ\u2019s disciples. <br>      But instead, the author of Hebrews offers a more basic, human, and pastoral reason.<strong> We are to meet regularly to \u201cencourage one another<\/strong>.\u201dI wonder if the growing dissatisfaction with church gatherings\u2014both physical and virtual\u2014is rooted in their failure to accomplish this most basic function. <strong>They may be informative with profound preaching. They may be entertaining with riveting music. But those are qualities easily achieved from a stage or screen. The kind of \u201cone another\u201d encouragement commanded in Hebrews, however, is personal, relational, and reciprocal. It\u2019s not accomplished by passively sitting in a theater seat watching a performance.<\/strong> This kind of encouragement requires us to be fully present and engaged. It\u2019s the arm-around-a-shoulder, praying-together-with-tears, let-me-help-you-carry-that-burden kind of gathering. It\u2019s the kind where no one is invisible and everyone is known. And it\u2019s the kind where personal stories of God\u2019s goodness and power are shared.To fill each other with strength\u2014the literal meaning of\u00a0<em>encouragement<\/em>\u2014requires two things. <br>     First, we must carry one another\u2019s burdens. Paul says to bear each other\u2019s burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ (see Galatians 6:2). And, second, we must help those tempted by despair to see God\u2019s power and goodness when their circumstances are blocking their vision. This is why God\u2019s people have always shared the stories of his faithfulness as part of their worship. Psalm 116 is part of this ancient tradition.The psalm is composed as a testimony. The writer is sharing in the assembly of God\u2019s people how YHWH\u2019s compassion saved him from anguish and death. Psalm 116 is meant to give others hope and courage so they will continue trusting in the covenant faithfulness of YHWH even when it appears that \u201cthe cords of death entangled me.\u201d <br>     This is also why we should continue to meet together and share our stories of God\u2019s faithfulness. We have sisters and brothers who are \u201covercome by distress and sorrow\u201d and who \u201chave been brought low\u201d by the world. They desperately need to be reminded of God\u2019s goodness. <strong>And we should keep meeting because sooner or later our roles will reverse. We will be the ones brought low, and we will be the ones needing to be filled with courage of others.<\/strong><br><br>DAILY SCRIPTURE    <a href=\"https:\/\/withgoddaily.us2.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=87188c8737bc50c1a2fb8e2c9&amp;id=7fb025f117&amp;e=f52fc38132\">PSALM 116:1-19<\/a><br><br>WEEKLY PRAYER     From Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 &#8211; 1945)<br>O God,<br>Early in the morning I cry unto you.<br>Help me to pray<br>And to think only of you.<br>I cannot pray alone.<br>In me there is darkness<br>But with you there is light.<br>I am lonely but you do not leave me.<br>I am feeble in heart but you do not leave me.<br>I am restless but with you there is peace.<br>In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience.<br>Your ways are past understanding, but<br>You know the way for me.<br>Amen.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Womanist theologian Karen Baker-Fletcher describes forgiveness&nbsp;as a source of healing that can help break repetitive cycles of hatred and violence.\u202f\u202f&nbsp; Forgiveness is grounded in love that demands justice. Forgiveness is a God-given grace that frees the sinned against to pray for the salvation of sinners to free the world from further hatred, violence, and desecration. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24161,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24157\/revisions\/24161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}