Lewis Smedes is a professor...
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Lewis Smedes is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. His best works are on forgiveness. In his book, The Art of Forgiving And Don't Know How, Smedes instructs readers that the way to forgiveness is simply to dismiss past hatred. It is a hopeful message that looks ahead, not back. It relates the hate from the heart. The only opportunity to gain reconciliation in a Christian's life is to surrender the overpowering hatred to Christ. Then move on. This is very, very difficult to accomplish.
Smedes' three stages sound simple. First, look at the person we need to forgive as a real person. Smedes says it is vital to "rediscover the humanity of the person who hurts us." Christians have persecuted the Jews for two millennia because we considered our Hebrew brothers as un-human. Christians are called to love others.
Second, Smedes mandates that we must "surrender the right to get even." Christians must dismiss the revenge that gnaws at us to get the final lick against the person we must forgive. The key word is "surrender." Christians must give all our vengefulness to God to help us through these hard tasks.
Third, we must revise the feelings we have toward the person who hurt us. We cannot change the other person; we must change ourselves. There is a way to forgiveness but it is painfully slow. We must proceed one step at a time.
-- Becker 1
Smedes' three stages sound simple. First, look at the person we need to forgive as a real person. Smedes says it is vital to "rediscover the humanity of the person who hurts us." Christians have persecuted the Jews for two millennia because we considered our Hebrew brothers as un-human. Christians are called to love others.
Second, Smedes mandates that we must "surrender the right to get even." Christians must dismiss the revenge that gnaws at us to get the final lick against the person we must forgive. The key word is "surrender." Christians must give all our vengefulness to God to help us through these hard tasks.
Third, we must revise the feelings we have toward the person who hurt us. We cannot change the other person; we must change ourselves. There is a way to forgiveness but it is painfully slow. We must proceed one step at a time.
-- Becker 1
