When you pray for Hitler and Stalin how do you actually teach yourself to make the prayer real? The two things that help me are (a) A continual grasp of the idea that one is joining one’s feeble voice to the perpetual intercession of Christ who died for these very men. (b) A recollection, as firm as I can make it, of all one’s own cruelty; which might have blossomed under different conditions into something terrible. You and I are not at bottom so different from these ghastly creatures.
-C.S.Lewis
Yesterday was Valentine's day. I wonder how Saint Valentinus would feel about how we celebrate his memory. With an America holiday like Valentine's day how can I not think of her yet again?
Our first Valentine's day still as fresh as last year's in my memory. It benefits me none to reminisce any further. I know You are not constricted by time as I am. To You our first Valentine's day occurred the same moment as I write this letter to You.
You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
-Jesus
How do I pray for her who has become what feels to be an enemy? How do I loosen my grip on this pain? How do I act as a true child of my Father in Heaven? As Clive suggests:
a)Whether I pray for her or not You are always with her. You are always interceding for her. Thus I might as well join my voice with my Savior's
b)Am I so different from her? Did I not commit the same selfish sin towards her? Am I able to even begin to reach for a stone?
She isn't Hitler or Stalin, yet at the same time, is anyone any more or less loved by You? Your love for Hitler, for her, for me, can it increase or decrease from it's origin? Nothing I do could ever even begin to earn Your favor. It is ONLY by Your blood that I am able to be in Your presence. Likewise, Nothing I do could ever begin to tear me from your favor. It is ONLY by Your blood that I am able to avoid an eternity without Your presence.
Let yesterday be the first Valentine's day of the rest of my life. Never again will I spend one displaying affection towards her. Never again will she communicate to me on the fourteenth day of February. Heal the hole in my heart.
Help me love my enemies! Pray for those who persecute me. Help me act as a true child of the Father in heaven.
Forgiveness begins with honesty
Forgiveness continues with empathy and humility
-Rich Nathan
I am as sinful as she. Honestly, I've wounded her as much as she has wounded me. To say she is happier with another man takes a great dose of humility. To say she made a mistake when she made those promises to me, to excuse her from her responsibilities that come along with those commitments is to empathize with her.
It is one thing to type them out to You in this letter. It is another to lay myself down everyday and align my heart with Yours. To learn to bite my tongue when an accusation towards her arises in me takes the blood of a Savior poured over my hard heart and softened each new sunrise.
I yearn to know her heart. I desire to share mine with her. I lay me down. I lay down the hours of conversation. I lay down the nights of cuddling. I lay down the broken covenant. I lay down the plans we made.
o, Lord I lay me down.
Derek Webb - Wedding Dress