Forgive Assholes
Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber
Published by Have a Little Faith on 30 May 2018
Stumbled on this short video “Forgive Assholes” and was astounded by it. Nadia speaks about forgiveness in a new way. It’s the sort of thing that has been told by all the great masters the world has known, but Nadia presents it in a different way. Does it resonate with you?
You can listen to the video or read the full transcript below.
I love her last sentence – “There really is a light that shines in the darkness, and that the darkness cannot, will not, shall not, overcome it”. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you should know that this light is you. You cannot, will not, shall not, be overcome. Maybe to “forgive assholes” is an important step to claiming this.
Full Transcript – Forgive Assholes
“I really believe that, when someone else does us harm, we’re connected to that mistreatment like a chain. Because forgiveness is nothing less than an act of fidelity to an evil-combating campaign. So, it’s not an act of niceness, it’s not being a doormat. It really, to me, is more bad-ass than that. Maybe retaliation or holding on to anger about the harm done to me doesn’t actually combat evil. Maybe it feeds it. Because in the end, if we’re not careful, we can actually absorb the worst of our enemy and, on some level, even start to become them. So what if forgiveness, rather than being like a pansy way of saying it’s okay, is actually a way of wielding bolt cutters and snapping the chain that links us. Like it is saying, what you did was so not okay that I refuse to be connected to it anymore. Forgiveness is about being a freedom fighter. And free people are dangerous people. Free people aren’t controlled by the past. Free people laugh more than others. Free people see beauty where others do not. Free people are not easily offended. Free people are unafraid to speak truth to stupid. Free people are not chained to resentment. That’s worth fighting for. There really is a light that shines in the darkness, and that the darkness cannot, will not, shall not, overcome it.”
Find out more about Nadia here – http://www.makers.com/faith
Also see my previous post – The gift of giving
I resonate…I only have love for them no matter what. I wish them to be happy. I hope they will be able to put their ducks in a row and be truthful to themselves and orhers.
Hi Chrysoula. Thanks for leaving a comment. Having love for them no matter what is not always easy, but it’s definitely the right goal. Sometimes I think it’s like having love for myself even when I’ve done something stupid.
All the best,
Peter.
It does resonate, thanks for sharing! It reminded me of a sentence I once read “revenge is like eating poison and expecting your enemy to die”
I resonate too.
Holding the hurt and anger in can make one like the one who has hurt you.
As you do that, you will see others also in that image, be tied to the past, and even revisit it.
Forgiveness releases us from the past and helps us see people better for who they are.
Loving them is not easy, but one can wish them better sense and God’s guidance (after all you wouldn’t want others to suffer like you)
One scene, I think, that exemplifies the above message is the reaction of Sir Thomas More to Richard Rich’s perjury in “A Man for all seasons”.
Many great saints (men or women, sung or unsung) have left us with this message.
I am just adding my one cent on this day (the day of Buddha’s enlightenment in India).