Forgiveness

Reading Howard Thurman’s Deep Is The Hunger today in which he discusses forgiveness, I am reminded of the C. S. Lewis quote: “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a good idea, until he has to give it.” Thurman provides insight as to why that is true — why forgiveness can be so difficult. First, he notes: “Every person stands in need of forgiveness.” Forgiveness is a universal need that is indifferent to race, gender, or age, or any other classification you want to toss into the ring. That being so, unlike so much else in life, we all, by personal experience, understand the significance of forgiveness. When we start walking in the field of forgiveness, we know the stakes or high. Thurman identifies the heart of the difficulty: “forgiveness is possible between two persons only when the offender is able to stand inside of the harm he has done and look at himself as if he were the other person.” There it is — forgiveness is difficult because it calls upon the offender (let’s say, hypothetically, me) to understand, and to some extent suffer, the very wrong inflicted on the offended. Who wants to do that? Which is, I guess, the underpinning of Thurman’s last sentence on this: “There is scarcely a greater test of character than forgiveness.”