Ok Then

Sometimes in life there are glimpses of things that could be good, but in that moment in time are not meant to be, maybe not at all (only time can tell). So how does one approach this situation? Well, there are only two real options, the first being avoidance and the second is to embrace it and seize the day. Surely the only viable option is the latter, particularly if you connect with that person. Because it is in that connection where you can learn from one other, and have your pre-conceptions challenged. Going back to the first option, that is avoidance, it may seem like a good way of avoiding pain but it isn't the mature option. Scott Peck once wrote that a good measure ones mental health is how one faces reality. We have to accept that life can be hard, and that the denial of that fact (by avoiding things) only delays the inevitable realisation. I understand that i may be sounding a little fatalistic, but that isn't what I'm trying to do. In my opinion, we can only really start living life properly when we step out, take the risk and live with the consequences. That is true living.

Fear

The emotion of fear is a powerful one which can affect us on many different levels. For instance, it can have great bearing on how one makes their decisions, whether it be in the everyday or the life changing ones . It can also inhibit the growth of relationships, and sometimes ruin ones that initially showed great promise. However, it is suprising how much damage fear can bring when you think about it's essence. The center of fear is the unknown and a complete sense of subjectivity, this is what we find in the realm of fear. So with this in mind, is fear something we should just be living with? I know alot of people do, including me. So this begs the question is there a way out?

One does not have to look far for an answer, because I have always been told that security is in the realm of truth. And we can find promises in scripture that can give one a foundation to face this fear. But that, in my opinion is the first stage. With this secure foundation we find in God we can face these fears in a practical way, that is facing the worst thing that can happen to us and then living with them. But living with the harsh realities of life should not be done in our own strength, but in light of the hope we have in Christ. To be specific it is the hope of this life not being the end, but the beginning of something new which is beyond are comprehension.

To forgive is a revolutionary act

It becomes easy to preach forgiveness when something dreadful has not come our way, because we are not the ones who need to deal with the mind numbing shock and the intense pain that inevitably comes after tragic circumstances. So why do we forgive? Is it just a moral imperative that really has no lasting consequences but only serves to make us feel better about ourselves or the person who has wronged us.



I would say that it is alot more than that, not because countless preachers have told me to do so or verses in scripture that exhort us to (good reasons that they are), but because i have seen forgiveness in it's purest form in the most tragic of circumstances.
The story I'm about to tell can only be described as an act revolutionary forgiveness, and it goes as follows:



.....On 2nd October 2006 a rather disturbed man walked into a Armish School and shot and killed 5 young girls and wounded 7 before turning the gun on himself. The gunman, Charles Roberts was a rather well respected family man who held down a steady job delivering milk and had constant contact with the Armish community. However, he had never been the same since the death of his youngest daughter 7 years earlier. The tragic sense of loss was to much to handle and all he could do was to blame God, the shootings of October 2006 where a rather sad culmination of spiraling grief and despair. In the aftermath of the shootings the Armish community was understandably in shock, and after attending the funeral of the five little girls there first actions were to acknowledge their own pain but also the need to forgive and reach out to the Roberts family. When it became time for his funeral there were a few of Roberts close family members and approximately 80 members of the Armish attending to pay their respects to Roberts and to comfort his family members..........



Our human nature will always view revenge as the way forward, but it isn't the getting even that is the revolutionary act, it is to forgive in the light of endless wrong, when there is subsequently no reason to do so, just like the Armish community did . What we saw there was a community in grief, being open and honest (authentic) about their pain but showing a forgiving attitude not just in words but actions.

Again, let me emphasise that to forgive is not to deny one's pain, that can be just as destructive as constantly holding onto anger. It is to be authentic about our hurt but having the will to be revolutionary.