You need to read Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza. You really do. This is an amazing book that speaks about the power forgiveness. The author lost most of her family in the Rwandan Genocide and she only survived by being hidden in a secret bathroom with a number of other ladies - the space was too small for all of them to stand at once: she was in that room for months without much food at all and when she was released she found out that her parents and her two brothers were murdered by machete. This is a lady who has experienced the power of forgiving.
The media and government of Rwanda was encouraging Hutus in their country to hunt down and kill Tutsis. There was one part in this book that my mind has not been able to forget. Immaculée tells of some of the Hutus who risked their own lives to save specific Tutsis from Hutu killers. She mentioned (with at least two specific examples) Hutus who would risk their lives to hide a specific Tutsi or two and then, at night, join the killing squads going out to kill other Tutsis. They both saved Tutsis and killed them. Immaculée experienced the power that comes from forgiving them as well as all the killers.
This incongruity (of helping some and harming others at the same time) can happen in any of our lives. On a less dramatic scale, I think that most of us have done something unkind, mean, vengeful, bad to someone else. I think most of us have also had something unkind, mean, vengeful, bad done to us. As we are forgiven, we are to forgive.
As we all want to experience mercy for the wrongs that we have done, let us show mercy to those who have wronged us so that we too can experience the full grace and power of forgiving.
The media and government of Rwanda was encouraging Hutus in their country to hunt down and kill Tutsis. There was one part in this book that my mind has not been able to forget. Immaculée tells of some of the Hutus who risked their own lives to save specific Tutsis from Hutu killers. She mentioned (with at least two specific examples) Hutus who would risk their lives to hide a specific Tutsi or two and then, at night, join the killing squads going out to kill other Tutsis. They both saved Tutsis and killed them. Immaculée experienced the power that comes from forgiving them as well as all the killers.
This incongruity (of helping some and harming others at the same time) can happen in any of our lives. On a less dramatic scale, I think that most of us have done something unkind, mean, vengeful, bad to someone else. I think most of us have also had something unkind, mean, vengeful, bad done to us. As we are forgiven, we are to forgive.
As we all want to experience mercy for the wrongs that we have done, let us show mercy to those who have wronged us so that we too can experience the full grace and power of forgiving.
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