Jesus: Forgiveness

We have to face the fact that

betrayal is one of the givens of human existence

and be prepared to deal with it. 

Ann: Would one of you talk to me about forgiveness?

Jesus:  Certainly, Ann.  I will take point here as know something about the struggle.  And a struggle it is, particularly when the wrong done you has a potent and seemingly lasting effect on your life, your psyche, or those around you.

          It sounds so easy when someone else accomplishes this feat.  The parent of a murdered child who forgives the killer and who expresses love toward the perpetrator with the clear understanding that forgiveness is not only, and perhaps not principally, for the benefit of the wrongdoer.

          Note that in such a situation,a wrong has clearly been done, but this is not the usual case.  Many times there is trespass on each side, if not in the beginning then in the retrenching into hardline positions where tunnel vision supports the view of each party. 

          Oddly enough a random murder where there is no rhyme or reason for the transgression can be easier to forgive because the act is by its nature impersonal, harder to understand in a cosmic or spiritual sense, but neither intent nor complicity is at issue. Instead, it’s the betrayal by the universe that takes center stage. 

However, for most of us, it is a loved on who betrays our trust, and the need for forgiveness is as personal as it gets and it happens to everyone.  I was no exception, but my experience just happened in a particularly more spectacular way.

Over the years, my story has gathered a life of its own with each retelling. but it was all so much uglier that it appears in those mythologized accounts.  The ugly truth was that those who believed in me turned away and let me fall. I was alone and deserted by those whom I trusted most.  Even worse, some defiled me to my would-be destroyers, making it seem that I was in the wrong or crazy.

This was not easy just to let this go. I had been wronged, and it cut me to the core. To forgive took everything I had. It was not a foregone conclusion though it has often been tacitly assumed that, because of my divine connections, it was not much of a stretch to forgive and take the high road.

But that wasn't the way it happened.  It happened to me just as it has and will happen to you, I was hurt and terrorized as so many of you have and will be. We have to face the fact that betrayal is one of the givens of human existence and be prepared to deal with it. 

I was aided enormously by years of refining my connection with Spirit and by learning from spiritual teachers of many disciplines the one foundation truth of all creation:  there is love available to you if your look for it.  If you turn your gaze elsewhere, that is what will come back upon you.  I turned my gaze to Source, and all else followed.

And so I say to you, when you are wrongly accused, do not focus on the accuser or the accusation.  Focus, instead, upon the source of your being, the Source, that which gave you life and purpose, and then follow that guidance with dogged determination. 

It is not easy, and there will be slips. I certainly had many of those, but Source is where your life is and not anywhere else.  Over time, and sometimes it may take a lot of time, you will find betrayal taking a backseat, just one event in the background of your life’s panorama, important perhaps, even seminal to the direction taken, but in and of itself memorable only as a catalyst or a course correction.

It takes practice and commitment to keep this focus, but it gets easier with time, and the next time you are confronted with such, you will be in better order to withstand the blow and keep moving on your chosen journey. 

You will still hurt.  Nothing I say will alleviate that.  It’s just that your focus, and therefore your perspective, will offer you sustenance and shelter as it did for me.

December 11, 2023 

All blog entries are works of the imagination and are for spiritual and entertainment purposes only.