Forgiveness as Order
I was reflecting on all of the disorder within schools during 2013. It has been reported that there were 30 shootings at schools in the United States in this one year period. Think about that for a moment. The context of the shootings centers on innocent children, adolescents, and young adults (at universities) who are unarmed and innocent.
Such disorder.
How many family break-ups were there in 2013 or acts of bullying that cut deeply into the very being of those bullied?
Such disorder.
Forgiveness is a profound response to disorder. What do you think? Do you think any of those school shootings would have happened if the men responsible for the mayhem had practiced forgiveness and rightly ordered their emotions from rage to calm?
What do you think? Do you think all of the family break-ups would have happened if both sides of the conflict practiced forgiveness? And perhaps the forgiveness needed to be toward people from years before because our left-over anger from childhood can follow us into adulthood and strike the innocent.
Forgiveness likely could have averted some of those break-ups if forgiveness toward each other in the present and toward parents from the past had been practiced. Forgiveness could have restored order……..and prevented disorder.
The same theme applies to bullying. If those who bully could only forgive those who have abused them, would the bullying continue or would the behavior become more orderly, more civil?
Forgiveness is one of the most powerful forces on the planet for restoring order within an injured self, within relationships, and within and between communities. Forgiveness is one of the most powerful forces on the planet for preventing disorder.
What do you think? Do you think that forgiveness could save our planet from destruction by enraged people with the weaponry to destroy? Forgiveness is about order, protection, wholeness, and love.
It is time for individuals and communities to see this and to have the courage to bring forgiveness into the light….to restore and then enhance order while it prevents the destruction of disorder.
Robert
You have hit upon something very important here, something very large. Forgiveness is about knitting order back into a troubled world. The fact that this virtue has not gotten the attention it deserves shows how troubled the people in this world are. Too many are so troubled that they cannot see this.
Restoring order and preventing disorder—–a very orderly perspective. Yes, I think you are right. What else can do both so effectively and with a little love thrown in besides?
My family where I grew up was in a state of disorder much of the time. It became acceptable for this to happen because it happened so much. And I can still feel that disorder now that I am an adult. This idea of forgiveness as restoring order and preventing disorder is so valuable. I think we all would have experienced more peace if we had forgiveness when I was growing up.
Forgiveness can engender such hope. Even disorder has an antidote and a powerful one in forgiveness. This can counter discouragement and give one the strength to move on.
As I travel the road of life I have come to the realization that there are such things as right relationships. These are healthy and respectful, in which each person does their best to correct their own weaknesses in service to the other. Forgiveness makes such right relationships possible and so it truly is about order—the right ordering of relationships.
So much chaos in the world and it seems to just get worse and worse. You make a convincing case that forgiveness does two things, restores order and prevents further disorder. How I wish I had known this while growing up. I might have made different choices in the important issues of life. Your call for forgiveness eduction is spot on.
But don’t you think we can overdo order? Can’t we make our lives so orderly, so neat and clean that there is no opportunity for risk and stretching ourselves beyond our comfort zone? Order is not necessarily an end point to our existence. To achieve, and to achieve beyond expectation, sometimes we have to be a little out of the ordinary, out of the expected order.
Chris, order is not an end point. It is part of the important means to the end point. How can one love and be loved if surrounded by disorder? Yes, you do make a good point that we can overdo even the good, in this case order, where it becomes more important than, say, love. And I might add that it ceases to be a good when it is distorted in this way. Yet, this distortion of order is not the intent of the message here. Forgiveness can hold a hand against disorder and with that same hand open the door for an orderly life. And by orderly I think is meant a reasonably predictable life with reliance that others will not take advantage and will be fair. Don’t we all need this more than we need the unpredictability of betrayal, hatred, and resentment, all disorders?
Give me order over disorder any day. Disorder is just a big waste.