FORGIVENESS is hard to offer & sometimes hard to accept.

FORGIVENESS is foundational to Christianity: “True Freedom in Forgiveness”

When, the former President, Bill Clinton met Nelson Mandela for the first time, he asked: "When you were released from prison, as you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face.

I have never seen such anger, & even hatred, … as was expressed on your face at that time.

That's not the Nelson Mandela I know today, what was that about?"

Mandela answered,

"I'm surprised that you saw that & I regret that the cameras caught my anger.

As I walked across the courtyard that day I thought to myself,

‘They've taken everything from you that matters.

Your cause is dead.

Your family is gone.

Your friends have been killed.

Now they're releasing you, but there's nothing left for you out there.'

& I hated them for what they had taken from me.

Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man!

Don't allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!'"

You can never be free to be a whole person if you are unable to forgive.   (King Duncan, Collected Sermons, 09/04/11)

Reflect on your approach to FORGIVENESS, why you offer it, why you accept it or not, and how FORGIVENESS draws you closer to God.

May God Be Praised!