Day of forgiveness

Forgiveness is not a word that we hear very often on social media. The Forgiveness Project on Twitter has 8,700 followers, while all manner of hate groups garner followers in the millions. According to Google’s Ngram tracker, the word “revenge” was used ten times as frequently in books in 2019 as “forgiveness.”

Every great faith tradition teaches that forgiveness is central to our humanity. Jesus, in his pattern prayer, reminds us that we will be forgiven as we forgive others (Matthew 6:12). The Quran teaches that “The retribution for an evil act is an evil one like it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation – his reward is from Allah” (Quran 42:40) and forgiveness is one of the six cardinal virtues in the Hindu Darma. The Jewish faith sets aside today as a special day to seek and grant forgiveness. It is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Forgiveness is not just a moral virtue that benefits the person forgiven, it heals the forgiver. During his eulogy at George Bush’s funeral, former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson said, “Hate corrodes the container in which it is carried.”

And we should never forget that sometimes we also need to forgive ourselves. I have always been a big fan of Tim McGraw. About ten years ago, he recorded a song about forgiving ourselves entitled One of These Days. I hope that you will take a few minutes today to enjoy his song and consider joining our Jewish brothers and sisters in forgiving those who have wronged you and forgiving yourself for the times you have fallen short of what you expected for yourself. I think you might be surprised at the peace you will feel from doing so.

Bill King is an author, businessman, attorney, former Mayor of Kemah, Texas.