MEDITATION Day 2*
Forgiveness sets me free of pain.
We don’t forgive someone for their sake; we forgive them for the sake of our own peace of mind. Any attack on another person is an attack on ourselves, for in the spiritual universe there is only one of us here. What I think about anyone I am thinking about myself. All of us are joined in the oneness of God‘s love. Only love is real and only love has power; everything else is a mortal illusion.
Forgiveness is my salvation from pain. If I believe in the reality of what “you did to me,” then I will feel as though the consequences of what you did to me are real. By “overlooking,” I will “overcome.” The question becomes this: where do I put my faith? Do I put my faith in something loveless that someone did to me, or in the eternal love that lies beyond and corrects all things? To the extent that I withdraw my attachment to what you did, I will no longer be affected by what you did. I have decided to put my faith elsewhere. That is the miracle of forgiveness.
Something loveless might have occurred in my life, and of course I have to process my feelings… but I don’t have to indulge them. I need to honor my feelings… but I don’t have to spew them. By standing on the spiritual truth that only love is real, I develop the ability to endure the gap in time between the pain of someone having hurt me, and the miracle of my release from suffering. In time, as forgiveness becomes my way of life, the gap itself will no longer exist.
*MORNING MEDITATIONS are from the book A YEAR OF MIRACLES: Daily Devotions and Reflections, copyright Marianne Williamson, HarperOne publisher.
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