What Is Forgiveness? (2)

HARD

True forgiveness is the hardest thing in the universe.

Our ideas of justice pull the other way. “He has wronged me. Let him pay,” we say.

When a betrayed trust or a fractured friendship wtings us, we want to hold the grudge close, to rush to our own rescue, to defend ourselves to the last word, or to pin the blame where it is due!

But forgiveness denies the self that demands its “rights.” It repudiates open revenge. It refuses even the polite little schemes we often use to get the other guy “back.”

Instead, it chooses to hurt, to suffer, and that is one of the hardest voluntary choices a man can make—to accept undeserved suffering. Suffering he could have avoided, suffering that rightfully belongs to the man who’s wronged him.

Forgiveness is hard because it is (to [3])