Forgiveness IS Suffering.

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written: “Forgiveness is a form of suffering.” Can you grasp that statement’s implication? If someone has really, really wronged you…you’ve got to forgive them. If you don’t forgive them, you’ll be eaten up with bitterness…and you’ll become part of the endless cycle of retaliation that makes the world the mess of a place that it is. So you’ve got to forgive. But, Bonhoeffer’s right. Forgiveness is agonizing. When you want to pay somebody back but you don’t pay them back, you pay. When you want to make them suffer but you don’t make them suffer…because you’re trying to forgive them…you suffer. Real forgiveness always entails suffering. There is no such thing as forgiveness without suffering. Not if you’ve really been wronged." [1]




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1. Timothy J. Keller. A Vision for a Gospel-Centered Life (Kindle Locations 817-823). Kindle Edition.