Listening to Jesus

Power

There are few choices more powerful than forgiveness.

It removes further self-inflicted poison from the lips of the victim.

It creates an opportunity for new beginnings.

It sets offender and offended free.

It initiates the healing process.

Forgiveness.

It is love in action.

It liberates from the inside out.

It starts the perpetrated on a new path.

It turns the eyes of the guilty heavenward in utter awe and faith.

There are few decisions more influential than forgiveness.

Hey, I’m Adam Suter. This is my personal blog. I am married to the love of my life, Michelle, and have three wonderful children. We live in Marietta, GA. I run a small nonprofit. Some of the things that fascinate me are faith, new ideas, people, stories, productivity, nonprofits, and my own children.

2 Comments

  • Sr, Mary Joseph

    Adam,
    This is from a website I subscribe to. Fr. Lawrence Jenco was held hostage in Lebanon for over 560 days. After being released he returned to an active ministry and died a few years later of cancer. An experience such as his — and others — makes it difficult to throw around a flip phrase like “forgive and forget.” The phrase does have some application, undeniably, in those minor irritations we all run into. Why not forgive and try to forget rather than carry around all that unnecessary baggage? He wrote after his release and his reentry into normal life that he could forgive his captors. How do you forgive someone who has arbitrarily taken your freedom away and confined you in a little cell for that length of time? Others have forgiven those who maligned them and attempted to destroy their reputation by false charges. Jenco apparently believed it was possible to forgive and did so himself.

    But, he said, it is not so easy or maybe even possible to forget the experience. It might be possible to forget the smaller things but 560 days of unjust imprisonment…? Couples whose marriage of twenty years breaks up likewise cannot simply forget twenty years of shared joy, grief and ordinary life. It’s a bit like the trust and hope we put in Christ at the death of a loved one; it might enable us to sing hymns of joy and trust but it cannot make us quickly forget all the person meant to us. Or that he/she is gone. Part of the seasoning of our soul is the acceptance into ourselves of unforgettable elements in our experience. We hope that with time and faith we see more clearly what value there is in those years of grief or joy.

    Don Talafous OSB
    — Don Talafous OSB

  • Sammye

    Adam, I am so blessed by this post. When I think of that redhead teenager and what wonderful man you have become, my heart swells with joy when I think of how your commitment to the Lord and that Natalie and Mike are a part of it. Thank you.

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