Why don’t we feel the need to forgive natural disasters? Certainly they wreak havoc every bit as horrible as what people do. I’m thinking the answer to that question might shed some light on forgiveness.
Is it that a hurricane attacks randomly, so victims don’t feel personally offended? But so do terrorists attack randomly.
Is it that we lose faith in our ability to predict what will happen? What a challenge to our sense comfort and control. Certainly natural disasters shake predictability to the core, just as murder and mayhem do. Yet we don’t feel the need to forgive the earthquake.
Is it that we attribute responsibility to the human offender? But certainly we know that the tornado is responsible for the devastation being suffered.
Maybe it’s a matter of morality. We expect human beings to follow some kind of moral code. Only if we choose to blame God for the natural disaster do we have the same expectation of the earthquake.
So, does it boil down to blame? The first step in forgiveness is to blame the offender. To forgive is to accuse.
Oh yes, one last piece – shame. Why do we find the little personal offenses, like a friend not speaking to us, so hard to forgive? Shame?
Just asking. What ideas will you share?
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