Mere Christianity cont'd

Book 3 of Mere Christianity was all about the way Christians should behave. I absolutely loved this book. Lewis spelled out the principles of Christianity so simply and beautifully that everyone could understand no matter their religion.

Lewis' chapter on forgiveness hit me kinda hard . . . probably because it's been a recent struggle of mine. Not only forgiving those who have hurt me, but forgiving myself for the mistakes I've made that put me in rough situations. Lewis mentions that most people think forgiveness is a "lovely" idea, until they are actually faced with the dilemma of forgiving someone. I have found this to be true. I've never understood where the difficulty in forgiving someone came from, then again I'd never had to truly forgive someone before. Once faced with the duty of forgiving I realized that forgiveness does not happen in a single moment. You don't just wake up one morning having forgiven someone who wronged you.

Lewis mentioned that the way you forgive someone is by learning to love them the same way you love yourself. You may not necessarily always like yourself or think fondly about who you are, but you always love yourself. Simply stated loving yourself means wishing good upon yourself. And thus loving those who have hurt us simply means hoping good things happen to them.

This shook my world. I realized that I could hope good things came to the people who had hurt me. I prayed that they would be happy in their new path, despite the harm they had done to me. And as I did this I learned that when you want others to be happy you come to love them, and even like them sometimes. It's hard to feel hatred towards people if you try to wish them luck at every turn.

I believe a harder part of forgiving someone is the forgetting part. I hold on to things . . . I don't easily forget. I might not think about them often, but they are always in my mind. Personally I think that there comes a moment when the wrongs people have done to us simply don't matter anymore. Truth is, the other person probably doesn't even realize the wrong they've done. By holding on to the hurt we allow it to continually effect our souls.  We just need to turn to God and ask Him to take it from us. Christ already suffered for our pain, now we just have to allow that atonement to work. I'm just grateful to Lewis, that he was able to help me learn to turn to the Lord and let go of the hurt that I had been so strongly holding on to.