Missionary Renegade: "Weavings August 2016 newsletter - 'Reconciliation'" from Upper Room Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Tuesday, 23 August 2016

"Weavings August 2016 newsletter - 'Reconciliation'" from Upper Room Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Tuesday, 23 August 2016
"Reconciliation"
August 2016

Becoming Bearers of Reconciliation by Roberta C. Bondi
Forgiveness stands at the heart of the Christian life. When we cannot forgive, sometimes it is because we fear that in the act of forgiving we would acknowledge the right of the other person to take our selves away and treat them as worthless. At other times, I believe it is because we do not allow ourselves to have a self to forgive or be forgiven.
If this is true for specific acts of forgiveness, how much more does it apply to reconciliation? In order to receive and offer reconciliation, we need to be able to claim a self whose very identity lies in God, a self which we know can neither be given away nor stolen.
Many of us have a hard time claiming our identity in God. And yet, where can God's forgiving and reconciling grace touch me if not in my very self? How can I share that grace with others if I cannot acknowledge that I have a self to be transformed by that grace? How can I afford to offer forgiveness and seek reconciliation if I believe that doing so means giving others the power to decide whether I ought to have a self at all?
The ancient monastics knew that there cannot be reconciling love where there is no self to do the loving. Thus they knew they were not free to give away that primary self to another person, dissipate it, sell it into bondage, or neglect it.
The peace that comes with claiming our self in God is the foundation of our ability to carry God's reconciling love to others in the most humble places and humble, everyday ways.[From Weavings (Jan/Feb 1990).]

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