Forgiveness is a transaction, as my friend Ron tells me.
He’s a retired pastor and I assume must know.
To be honest, I agree totally.
There is a time to make amends,
to reconcile or let go.
And there is a posture in the interim,
an open heart towards the possibility
of what another crisis—a trauma needing triage—
might keep waiting.
This poem appears in my book Roses in Winter and speaks to the incredible need we have to forgive and be forgiven in a real way; there are no shortcuts, but often there are waiting times. And in that time of waiting it’s important to keep an open door, a heart accessible to the possibility of deep healing, truth and reconciliation, making restitution where necessary, coming clean and moving on. It’s a universal need for peace to be lasting. My book Longings of the Soul, also speaks of this spiritual discipline of walking in forgiveness, and/or with a heart open to it, and the incredible life it brings and the things it restores. There is simply so much to say and write about this vital topic. I encourage you to delve deeper on it.