"i am sorry"
This phrase can be so common in every day life, yet sometimes it takes years to say it and even longer to receive it. we say it to perfect strangers so easily,and with such difficulty to a loved one. the ego hates to say it but loves to hear it. the scary theological word for this phrase is "repentance" which means to turn around or about face. i find a lot of truth in that, a friendship can be drifting apart until one party asks for forgiveness and the friendship seems to turn around back towards being coming together as friends.one of the greatest tragedies I see lately is that we don't know how to forgive these days, how sad is it today that our normal response to an apology is to say "it's ok." a denial of the need for an apology is a denial that what happened was wrong. so many times i feel it necessary to remind the people i am with of the need to acknowledge that what happened to them was not right, and forgiveness is something that is often not deserved but freely given.
I think that forgiveness is just as freeing for the forgiver as the forgiven.
I think that pride can be such a wedge between relationships causing small insignificant bump in the road issues to become an insurmountable canyon. pride is the main factor that needs to be put aside both to forgive and to receive an apology. it took a long time to realized that forgiving those who have wronged me was not denial that it i was wronged, but rising above it and moving forward. letting my tormenting and tyrannical ego die with the need to be justified as a victim. the tyranny of self dies, the freedom from forgiveness comes.
just some random thoughts really.
