A couple of weeks ago we had a guest speaker in our sunday school class. He said something I thought was very interesting. He said, "People say to Forgive and Forget. Well, people can't FORGET so they should just ACT as if it never happened". Hmmm
In so much of my life I've struggled with forgiving and forgetting. Honestly, I've forgotten a lot of things. Most people are suprised at that because women are the ones who remember everything but not me. I think it's been easier just to let some of it go than remember it all. At other times, I've struggled with forgiveness. Wow, that's a hard one. So with the new philosophy of just ACT like it never happened. I just laughed and laughed about it. Honestly, I did. I joked about it saying maybe I can just act as if the whole person never existed. Yes, yes that would be a whole lot easier. The key word for me was ACT. It's not helpful to anyone to put on a front and "pretend". And yet, I mastered it long ago. If they offered a degree in pretending well....
The point of all this jibber jabber is - sure we may not ever be able to forget and sometimes it may take a long time to forgive. But seriously the whole idea of acting like it never happened. Is that right? Is that healthy? Where is the healing in that? What do you think?
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2 comments:
I don't know if you would have been in my class or not, but I know I didn't hear this statement -- because I would still be fuming.
A little bit of my current rant about that is over at Mindy's blog.
Here's the deal: "Forgive and Forget" is a 100% modern-day myth of politeness. It's not possible. Forgiveness is from God -- "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." I suppose that could include FORGETTING some offense for which you needed to forgive, but the harder thing is to continue to remember -- and continue to forgive. Perhaps the ACTING as if it didn't happen refers to the love you pour on that person after the offense. But, as someone once said to me, just because we're Christians doesn't mean we have to be idiots. I think we should learn from those offenses, as well.
Anyway -- I'm sorry I didn't hear this person. If I had the energy, I may have to have a long conversation with them so that they could explain where the good is in acting?
I don't know if just ACTING like it never happened is possible. I do believe forgiveness is powerful and holding on to something only hurts you, not the person your mad at. All easier said than done though@
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