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.