(Illustration tagged: "Bonhoeffer - still making me work.")Tripp posts at The Anglobaptist about forgiveness and why we're in community:
Don't ever let anyone tell you different; forgiveness is a pain in the ass. It's an impossible task sometimes. It will ask everything of you with no promises attached. It's true. Forgiving someone who has hurt us deeply is one of the most difficult tasks known to humanity. The only thing that might make that already seemingly impossible task more challenging is if the person you must forgive is yourself.
I have a list. Do you? You know, of the things for which you need to forgive yourself? Desmond Tutu says, "Without forgiveness, there's no future."
He's so annoying. He's right, of course. There is a way that we are incapable of growing or moving into the future God wants for us sometimes if we cannot forgive ourselves.
I don't want to air my dirty laundry here. It would be akin to bragging. This post is already coming too close to that as it is. Sharing is one thing, but to reveal too much is unseemly. Let me just say that there are things I've done, a person (or people) I have been in the past that I simply cannot forgive. I did not see that until today when a parishoner called me out on something.
Stupid communal spiritual honesty.
So...yeah. I need to forgive myself somehow. I just don't know how to yet. God have mercy on me, a sinner. Anyone know a good confessor?
In other news, Alan Rudnick blogs at On the Bema. He's a smart and passionate Baptist minister. For some unknowable reason, he has asked me to contribute to his series on baptist sacramentality. He's posting my entry tomorrow. In the mean, I offer this brief reading list for your edification. Yes, baptist sacramentalism is
alive and well.
Suggested Reading:
Promise and Presence: An Exploration of Sacramental Theology by John E. Colwell Gathering: A Spirituality And Theology of Worship in Free Church
Tradition by Christopher J. Ellis
Joining the Dance: A Theology of The Spirit By Molly T. Marshall
Can These Bones Live? A Catholic Baptist Engagement
with Ecclesiology, Hermeneutics, and Social Theory by Barry Harvey
What are you thinking, praying, writing about? Please share in the comments. If you would like to include a link to a post, use this formulation: <a href="the url of your blog post goes here">what you want the link to say goes here</a>
Thanks MB, and Tripp.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Thanks, Tripp.
ReplyDeleteI want to let y'all know about a little celebration (and giveaway) I'm having over at my place .
Great for my own reflection today... thanks, Tripp (and MB).
ReplyDeleteI wrote in response here to a CPE experience with mothers who lost babies on Tuesday...
I would also suggest Miroslav Volf's Free of Charge for reading on Forgiveness
ReplyDeletehey there -have a post up that may or may not relate to forgiveness. love what trip wrote! thanks!
ReplyDeleteMe too. I have so much I'd like to say about forgiveness and really need it too. But mostly sometimes I just have to forgive myself for being myself. eewk.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to e-mail this post to my husband but don't know how to get that magic. Cut and paste? It would be cool to be able to send some of the posts to myself too. Always something good happening here. ;-)
What a great post, Tripp. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI posted today about symbiogenesis, a new theory of evolution I read about that seems right in line with the Imago Dei. Then I was surprised and delighted to discover it got picked up for Freshly Pressed on wordpress.com! Made my day!
Day late, but there's a discussion on cremation going on here that might be of some pastoral interest.
ReplyDelete