How Do You Know...Who and How to Forgive?

I’ve been thinking about forgiveness this week. To live life alongside others requires embodied and enacted forgiveness. Let’s face it, messiness and disenchantment are part of all relationships. 

I wonder if this isn’t part of why friendships end, marriages dissolve, and families part ways...unless there is forgiveness and acceptance of the weaknesses and tensions that is part of being human?

Room for failure has to be part of the grace we extend to each other in our neighborhoods, organizations, workplaces and families. To recognize others' and our own failures is the first step; the readiness to let go of injury and an awareness of one’s own poverty and sinfulness. 

As you reflect on your life, who has failed you? Who has disenchanted you by “things done and left undone”? Can you make room for him or her, and recognize that there between you is where grace waits to happen? This is tough, but it is about a basic understanding and practice of the Spirit’s perfecting love in us and among us. How will you practice forgiveness and grace this week?