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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Forgiveness?

There is a guy I went to high school with who seems to feel the need to post his frustrations on Facebook. Which, whatever, I post my frustrations here, so ok. We aren't friends on Facebook anymore, but I clicked on his profile the other day and noticed that he had just written a note. It was about a car accident that he had just been in, and how wronged he had been. It wasn't his fault. Someone ran a stop sign and hit him, and totaled his vehicle. His vehicle is worth over $5000, but over $3000 has to pay off his loan, so he'll have $2000 to find a new car. He believes that this is him being punished for someone else's carelessness. He feels like the driver should be punished more than he is. He doesn't feel that just because the other driver pays for insurance that he should get off the hook like that. I can't help but wonder if the guy I went to school with has ever put himself in someone else's shoes. Yes, he is the victim in this situation, but what good is feeling sorry for yourself? He is going on and on about how the other driver doesn't have any punishment or penalties for hurting him financially and putting him in a rough place. What about the driver? His wife was injured, he is without a vehicle as well. What I wonder is, has he ever heard of forgiveness? It was a car accident. Accident.

It wasn't until recently that I learned how to forgive. I used to hold grudges and hang on to things that didn't matter. I was an angry person, and it was exhausting. While I still have people I'd rather not talk to, I don't hold grudges like I used to. I feel that if someone wrongs me, it isn't going to do me any good to wrong them back. It won't make me feel better. I don't know how to tell people to let go. If I said something to this guy about forgiveness, I'd get yelled at and added to his hate list. How do you help others who don't want to be helped?

"Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves." -Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Have any of you seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? We watched it this weekend and I think it is a great movie. I feel like this scene is important. If you haven't seen the movie, you can watch this clip, I don't think it gives anything away in the movie.

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