Insane Compassion
Saturday, June 10 2006 @ 12:39 AM PDT
In the June issue of Psychology Today there is an interesting article surrounding the concept of forgiveness. The primary story tells about a man who lost his grandmother to a group of teenage girls who called on the elderly Christian woman under the guise of seeking bible study. Instead, they stabbed her to death before ripping her off for ten dollars. After spending literally years locked in anger and hate and ignoring God, Bill Pelke began to pray. One night during a work break, the image of his grandmother's killer came to mind and instead of imagining her in an electric chair, he imagined her crying and lonely in her prison cell. It was then he asked God to forgive this young girl who must not known what she was doing. He says, "I knew I had to forgive her, but finding love and compassion was much harder. "
He ended up writing Paula Cooper and over time developed a friendship. At the outrage of his family, Pelke fought for Paula's death sentence to be rescinded, which ended up being commuted to a 60-year sentence. A volunteer coordinator for Parents of Murdered Children comments that Christians forgive the murderer of a loved one due to what their "faith requires" and calls Pelke's desire to befriend his grandmother's murderer "insanity." Psychologist Paul Berg states, "...forming a postive bond with a killer may be driven more by pathology than compassion..." and also believes that forgiveness is "overrated."
Jesus Christ not only forgave those who called for His death and torture, but He actually took the chief of the murder plot as His treasurer, walked with him for the duration of His ministry and then even ate dinner with him before washing His feet the night before His arrest. What kind of God does something like that? He knew the key players involved in His death yet even from the cross He did not condemn. The thief on the cross beside Jesus who witnessed this miraculous love was so moved that he had a total heart transplant right there before he himself died!
Is it true that to err is human but to forgive is divine? Are we insane to find compassion for those who do unspeakable things not just to strangers but to our own loved ones? Maybe we are deluded as the God we serve? Or how about this, maybe the only way for some people to find the door to peace after a personal horror is to release all the fantasies of revenge and to allow God to take it and replace it with love - even for the unlovable.
Some people believe that it is best to resist all that is bad and take only the good. Superficially it sounds good enough but when one peers a little deeper one can see the utter selfishness in that seemingly noble act, not to mention the fantasy land from which such a notion hails from. True, we are instructed to "flee from the enemy" and to "meditate on all that is pure and lovely" but let's not forget that we do live in a fallen world where awful things - to some degree - happen to all of us. Let us also not forget we were given a spirit of confidence and not one of fear. So what do we do when we meet a crushing trial head on? God demonstated over and over again how to deal with raw turns. He absorbed pain and in return for the torture he endured, he reciprocated with glorious love. Now that is true power! He takes our garbage and in return he gives us all that is bright and new, unspoiled and precious. " To give to those who mourn in Zion. Joy and gladness instead of grief, a song of praise instead of sorrow." Isaiah 61:3 Why would God ask us to do any less? I don't think He does. Life will always be generous with sorrow and hard times, there is no way around that fact. It is easy to fall down and flirt with the urge to stay down but really, how incredibly challenging to take a blow and then rise again and not to squash it but to serve it?
span>So, easier said than done right? Ya. But it is possible. Bill Pelke is living proof.
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