God’s Job
“We can’t forgive: that’s the work of the Spirit. We’re too damaged. But we can be willing. And in the meantime, try not to break his fingers.”
–Anne Lamott, quoting a friend in Grace (Eventually), p. 194
I Never Thought of It That Way.
“You’ve got to wonder what Jesus was like at seventeen. They don’t even talk about it in the Bible, he was apparently so awful.”
–Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually), p. 192
Love is Greater
“But forgiveness means that this real and horrible offense shall not separate us. Forgiveness means that we will no longer use the offense to drive a wedge between us, hurting and injuring one another. Forgiveness means that the power of love that holds us together is greater than the power of the offense that separates us. That is forgiveness. In forgiveness we are releasing our offenders so that they are no longer bound to us. In a very real sense we are freeing them to receive God’s grace. We are also inviting our offenders back into the circle of fellowship.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer:Â Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 188
Never the Same
“Forgiveness is not acting as if things are just the same as before the offense. We must face the fact that things will never be the same. By the grace of God they can be a thousand times better, but they will never again be the same.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer:Â Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 188
Not About Forgetting
“No, we remember, but in forgiving we no longer use the memory against others.”
– Richard J. Foster, Prayer:Â Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 187
As We Forgive Our Debtors
“So it is with forgiveness. As long as the only cry heard among us is for vengeance, there can be no reconciliation. If our hears are so narrow as to see only how others have hurt and offended us, we cannot see how we have offended God and so find no need to seek forgiveness.”
– Richard J. Foster, Prayer:Â Finding the Heart’s True Home, p. 187
God loves to forgive.
[Jesus] “teaches us in this way because he knows how very much God loves to forgive. It is the one thing he yearns to do, aches to do, rushes to do. At the very heart of the universe is God’s desire to give and to forgive.”
— Richard J. Foster, Prayer:Â Finding the Heart’s True Home
Love and Self-respect
“Even when no one else seems to recognize how truly remarkable we are, we always have ourselves, the one inexhaustible resource for positive reinforcement, the one person who will always proudly wave our personal flag.”
–Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love:Â Reflections on Loving, p. 16.
God’s Power to Heal
“Please, accept the word of this prodigal, without illustration, that God can solve all the problems we have created in our marriages. Our Creator knows that as human beings living in a sinful world, we often fail Him. He is ready to forgive us and rescue us and our marriages from satan.”
–Bob Steinkamp, Prodigals Do Come Home, p. 28.
Librarians
“We were there to celebrate some of the rare intelligence capabilities that our country can actually be proud of–those of librarians. I see them as healers and magicians. Librarians can tease out of inarticulate individuals enough information about what they are after to lead them on the path of connection. They are trail guides through the forest of shelves and aisles–you turn a person loose who has limited skills, and he’ll be walloped by the branches. But librarians match up readers with the right books: ‘Hey, is this one too complicated? Then why don’t you give this one a try?'”
–Anne Lamott, Grace (Eventually), p. 153