Forgive Especially When It Doesn't Make Sense

At one time or another, everyone experiences a life-changing event. These events make up part of your history and will forever impact your life. Each event changes the way you survive that chapter in life and the way you view yourself and others around you. When someone you love is taken from you through a thoughtless act, you are confronted with a vital choice: to forgive or not to forgive. If your loss impacts your entire existence, it affects every fiber of your being, and the choice to forgive can mean life or death. Think about who has forgiven you, whom you have forgiven, and what those acts of forgiveness did to your heart, soul, and your very existence. We, as humans, forgive small trespasses against us every day. But what about the huge events? What if an act that needs to be forgiven and the person who perpetrated it are unthinkable? What if someone did something so heinous to you that you would find it impossible or improbable to bestow forgiveness on them? Our son, Sean, was killed by a drunk driver when he was a teenager. This tragic event began a life-long series of choices to exercise forgiveness for the good of our family, the perpetrator, and in obedience to what we knew was the right thing to do. To stagger under an ongoing burden of grief is too much to endure. The results of the carelessness of one person who tragically took the life of our son composed the beginnings of healing and gave us opportunities to forgive events and people we never dreamed we would encounter. This story, like the events that began it, changed our lives and the lives of many people forever. Perhaps this story will change your life, too.