The Wisdom Of Forgiveness

We live in a world of infinite knowledge limited by elusive wisdom. We have access to multiple volumes of past human brains. We have what is known as the inspired word of God, which is considered stretching beyond human wisdom. The average man or woman can access almost anything in any language. I can speak a bit of Japanese, but i was never strong at written Japanese. Never the less, I was able to translate an entire letter from English to Japanese Kanji in a matter of moments, via Internet. Many people are not so fortunate in the area of knowing what to do with the knowledge. A intelligent person can have a profound knowledge of something, and still feel handcuffed to mediocrity. People feel this way all of the time. Have you ever believed the answer was right in front of you, but you simply could not grasp the appropriate application of the principle which leads you to the desired results? I am sure that you have. Everyone faces these type of moments in route to wisdom. Wisdom is the divine ability to apply acquired knowledge. Wisdom is the upper echelon of the human capability. It is such a heavy feeling burden when I believe that I know what to do, but I don't know how to go about doing it. This is where wisdom is necessary.

There are an array of applications for wisdom ( The how to and when to of the what). How can I take better care of my family? Who should I marry, and at what age? Should I invest in this property? How do I fix this relationship? How do I forgive? How do I go on living like this? We have plenty of input from the diverse arena of knowledge, but which input do we use? Let us choose one subject, and explore a scenario of applied wisdom.

The principle thing to know is how to obtain wisdom in a given area. However,  a "how to" method on obtaining specific wisdom is another book in itself. Therefore, I will simply give you some of my own wisdom from a particular area. Your responsibility is to sift it through your "Bull-O-Meter", and see if it is applicable for your use or discarding. Let us take the subject of forgiveness as one universally common problem in the "how to" area.  People do not understand what steps to take in order to forgive someone. Let me try to help, and you can call it wisdom or "wisdumb".

There are generally two questions to ask when going through the process of forgiveness. 

1. Did the person in question act maliciously with full knowledge and intent?
2. If the act was intently, do I need to forgive anyway?

I have seen people disconnect from others when the other person had no idea what they did, or never intended for the act to be interpreted in such a negative way. People have left churches mad at pastors. People refuse to go to a church because of something that happened some where else. Spouses have slept in different bed for years because of a single offense. How many people have you turned your back on because you think they turned their back on you first? Unforgiving begins with a root seed of offense.  
In order to get rid of the dark and unforgiving hurt, you must track down the offense. Ask yourself, "did this person really intend to offend me"? Did this person hate me? Would they hurt me on purpose? Do they communicate in a way that is different than mine? Are they more passive or aggressive than I am? I know that thousands left my church at one point. The pastor made decisions, and later admitted that the changes came to early and at the wrong time. How much more character do you want than that? He admitted he was out of season. I assessed to situation the entire time as a Christian should. The bible tells us not to judge one another, but it does tell us to judge all situations. I think I judged it perfectly. I asked myself if he did anything harmful and out of order on purpose. The answer was no. He acted with high character before, during, and after the split. I stayed. I was never taken by offense. Even if i were, i know  his heart was not of evil intentions. I would have forgiven him over and over again. I urge you to ask yourself the same question. Did your friend or spouse do it on purpose? Did your teacher or boss say it, knowing that you would be offended? Did your sibling desire to see your pain? If not, please forgive them. They knew not what they did. Like little innocent children, give them one more chance. That is what it means to be the bigger person. You become like a parent or the everlasting father. You give grace, pardons, and you sow the seed of self sacrifice. It yields a harvest of unrestricted love.

It is slightly more of a daunting task to forgive someone who malevolently abused your friendship with perfect knowledge of the forthcoming pain

Sometimes, I am not successful at picturing the offender as a retarded child. That is when I have to go to the highest level of self defense. My defense is to extract the offense from within myself because it is my responsibility physically, mentally, and spiritually. The internal stress has proven to be enough to cause bodily traumas and disease. You physically are dis-eased and a cancerous environment is given prime time within your dwelling. Your mental disposition leads back to your physical position. Where the head goes, the body must follow. If you are a spiritual person, most spiritual manuals will denounce the practice of not forgiving. The bible makes it a command. It is bad karma for Buddhist and other religions. Most spiritual people understand that the final responsibility of forgiveness lies with the person who is offended. This means that you are doing it for yourself first and the offender second. At any rate, your sacrifice of letting it go is notable. Your harvested gift will be a light, burden free, spirit, body, and soul. Your harvest/reward is beautiful, and it is all yours, due to your courageous actions. You are so smart. It takes so much inner character. You are ready. The time is now. You can do it. Let's forgive.