Preemptive Forgiveness

During our weekly mid-week Lenten service, we read a chapter from the book “The Sacred Art of Forgiveness.” It’s a great book with short chapters that lend themselves to powerful conversations. The chapter we read from last evening was about telling your story. It told the story of a man who suffered great loss, but because he read someone’s story of great loss and still went on, it changed him — literally saved his life. And the author went on to talk about the idea of preemptive forgiveness.

Preemptive forgiveness is about deciding in advance how you are going to forgive people before they have even done anything. People have used this when they know they are going to be in a terrible situation — it’s what allows them to not be eaten up inside with anger and hatred.

So it prompted a question for me — How can I preemptively forgive? What would I need to preemptively forgive someone for? Who might be someone I need to preemptively forgive?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but they have me thinking about them. In a world that is uncertain, I think there is plenty of opportunity to preemptively forgive.

Preemptively forgiving doesn’t mean you just brush off whatever will happen. It doesn’t mean you excuse it either. It means you look at the situation and the person differently. Maybe even with compassion. I’ve seen this and try to practice it myself when I read the news lately. I read about something that someone said or did and I try to have compassion. Again, I don’t read what is…