day 6: forgiveness

today i went to another church for the first time in my life. god you are speaking to me the same message no matter where I go, no matter who I talk to, no matter the state my heart is in 

and I have no other response but thank you.

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"I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find 'Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.' There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms."

To be able to forgive your enemies is to be able to love your enemies. And to love your enemies is ... 

hm

To love your enemies is to love them, and to love them is to love oneself. Oh, love each other as you do yourself. So to love another is to first, love yourself, who was first, loved by God. 

I don't like many things about myself. Yet, this is my life and I love my life. I may not like the choices I make or the roads I travel, but I love my life. 

In the same way forgiveness from God is reflected in His love for us: "not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are the things called selves. for there is nothing else in us to love...", in this same way, I must love and forgive others. 

It is easy to see and listen to and even join in hate, in a worldly sense it can be justified. But those who believe are called out to be set apart as well, and this cycle of hate-hate-hate cannot run free, we have to stop. 

Be brave, call out hate and drive it out with love, don't ever let yourself sit silently and listen to hate again. It has to stop. 

Forgiveness is "to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good." 

start.