Future-Forgiveness
I just came up with this idea of “future-forgiveness” this week, after almost three decades of thinking daily about forgiveness. I think it is an important idea.
By “future-forgiveness” I mean an attitude you cultivate in moving into the future. As you forgive people for past injustices, forgiveness comes to be a part of you. You begin to see that you can love those who are cruel to you, and if you can do that, then you can love those who are interacting pretty well with you. Then you come to realize that this is how you can live your life—loving others as a way of life—no matter what life throws at you.
“Future-forgiveness”—committing to going into your future with love for others no matter how they treat you—is a joyous way to live.
Dr. Bob
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Hope. I think that is the reason why “future-forgiveness” is a protection for our emotions. Hope is the assurance of things to come. We have this hope that no matter what people do to us in the future, we will respond to them with love. Thus, “future-forgiveness” gives us present happiness because of how we know we will respond to cruelty in the future.
C.S. Lewis could not have said it better. Thank you for this post and the follow-up comment.
My life has been enriched by reading the blogs.
Just so I have this straight. “future-forgiveness” is more of an attitude rather than a set of behaviors that I engage in now. With “future-forgiveness,” I prepare my heart to be loving in the future and this gives me hope. The hope then translates into happiness now even though the attitude is forward-looking, into the future.
This idea makes me happy. I can bring forgiveness with me wherever I go. It brightens the future.