I was listening to "Good Morning Sunday" today and was very impressed by an interview with Desmond Tutu's daughter.
Here's a link and a bit of blurb:
(it's 15 mins long)
Rev Mpho Tutu 15 JUN 14
Duration:
15 mins
Available:
30 days remaining
The Reverend Mphu Tutu is an Episcopal Priest and Executive Director of The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation. She's the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chaired South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and with whom she has co-authored "The Book of Forgiving", published in April. At the beginning of May they launched together "The Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge" to help everyone learn how to forgive and see the benefits of forgiveness in their own lives.
There is a photo of her on this page - - she’s stunningly beautiful.
Love and peace,
Judy
With the distressing "an eye for an eye" reprisals accompanied with the outpouring of grief, anger and revenge going on in the Middle East over the teenagers murders, I felt I should share a couple of examples of the transformative effect of forgiveness. Both of these individuals also experienced the murder of a loved one:
[url]"Forgiving the unforgivable" [/url]
“…on New Year's Day 1996, Worthington's brother, Mike, called from Tennessee to tell him the tragic news that their mother had been brutally murdered in a botched robbery attempt in her home late the night before.
“I had had all day to simmer about it, and I just got absolutely furious. I had that adrenaline-flooding sensation when you feel as if your face is going to explode, and I was really angry….
.”..And I remember looking around and seeing a baseball bat against the wall, and pointing to that baseball bat, and saying, 'I wish I had whoever did that here. I would beat their brains out. They wouldn't last 30 minutes.' And then my sister said, 'They wouldn't last ten if I got ahold of 'em.' And my brother said, 'I'd make 'em suffer for over an hour.' And so we all became even more furious about the murder as we continued to walk about it."
Continued below
Worthington above found peace and grace through the forgiveness he found. Daniel below found even more. He was in prison, eaten with rage and in pain with a bullet lodged near his heart. Not only did he have an emotional healing, but also a physical one, through prayer and then later, when another prisoner threw some cleaning chemical in his eyes, he just didn't hold onto any resentment and again, was very quickly healed.
[url]"A new heart" [/url]
One day I told the chaplain that I had a bullet lodged near my heart. I asked her if Christian Science prayer could remove it. (Two doctors outside prison and one at the other prison had previously examined me and concluded that an operation would be too risky. I was in quite a bit of pain.)
The chaplain assured me that God could do anything and that Christian Science could heal me. I told her I was shot when I'd tried to prevent a family member from being shot. From that moment on, I had begun a life of crime. I was filled with self-justification and rage every time I thought of the shooter....
I was learning to think of myself as God's child, but I hadn't been able to think of the other man that way yet. The chaplain said that no one had an excuse for bad behavior and that everyone needed to behave like a child of God because that's who we are. She read this sentence from the Bible to me: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" ( Gen. 1:27).
The chaplain knew I had a niece less than a year old. She said I should think about the man who shot me the same way I thought about my niece—as a pure, innocent child. At first I said I'd try, not thinking I could really do it. But then I thought that I was either going to know God's truth or not, so I said I would, and asked her to pray with me. I prayed, and a couple of nights later, when I was taking off my T-shirt, tiny pieces of metal were sticking to the inside of my shirt and on my skin around the heart area. My rage and anger were gone. I felt I had been given a new heart, one with no room for those outgrown emotions.
"I prayed, and a couple of nights later, when I was taking off my T-shirt, tiny pieces of metal were sticking to the inside of my shirt and on my skin around the heart area. My rage and anger were gone. I felt I had been given a new heart, one with no room for those outgrown emotions." I love that!
Love and peace,
Judy
I've just read this account of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and found it inspiring.
[url]Love from China's famed dissident[/url]
The article quotes Nelson Mandela: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
Love and peace,
Judy
Today I listened to this radio programme and found it really inspiring.
The first speaker had been abused by her father as a child and she takes us through her journey of finding forgiveness and healing.
The second healing was of a physical scar - an injury caused by barbed wire which had remained on her hand until a bright Sunday School pupil pointed out she hadn't dealt with it! 😉
[url]Can we remove mental and physical scars from our lives? [/url]
Enjoy!
Love and peace,
Judy