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STARTING POINT 

The healing power of forgiveness

Corrie’s sister died during the imprisonment. It was a devastating loss. But after the war, Corrie traveled throughout Europe, giving talks about God’s love and about Jesus’ teaching that his followers forgive their enemies.

In 1947, immediately following one of these talks, a man in a gray overcoat approached Corrie and expressed appreciation for her talk. She recognized him as a guard at Ravensbruck. He didn’t remember her, but told her he’d been a guard there, and said that since that time he had become a Christian. He put out his hand and asked her if she would forgive him.

As she stood there, the dark memories of that time nearly overcame her. Corrie said that forgiving him was the hardest thing she’d ever been asked to do. In her desperation, she prayed silently and found herself grasping the former guard’s hand, exclaiming, "I forgive you, brother! With all my heart!"

Corrie says, "I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then."1

Jesus was clear in laying out the key to forgiveness. He said, "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 2

For many years, I struggled to thoroughly forgive a family member whose harsh comments had often left me in tears. As I learned more about Jesus’ teachings, I began to see how important it was that I forgive this individual. Before praying the Lord’s Prayer, I’d turn to God with my own simple prayer: "God, show me how to forgive this person and how to let go of the anger I feel toward him."

Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, once said, "Each day I pray: ‘God bless my enemies; make them Thy friends; give them to know the joy and the peace of love.’"3

I saw that the greatest need wasn’t to make this person my friend, but to ask God to bless him and to pray that he would be God’s friend.

During this time, I was driving across town one day when another driver pulled out in front of me, forcing me to brake hard to avoid a collision. My first reaction was not to ask God to bless that driver! I was startled at how ready I was to hurl a few sharp words in his direction.

As I drove on, I decided that I could practice forgiveness by forgiving others, and myself, for the little wrongs that occurred each day. From then on, when anyone I encountered treated me unpleasantly, I paused and silently affirmed that I had the spiritual capacity to see God’s goodness in all of His children. I asked God to bless the person’s day with joy and peace and to lift any feeling of anger off my heart.

These little acts of forgiveness soon became a habit.

Over a period of months, I found that my anger toward the family member had faded and had been replaced with a heartfelt prayer that he’d find peace and joy in his life. And in that process I came to understand that his animosity, though apparently directed at me, was really impersonal. It never had the impetus of divine Love to inflict any damage or cause me any hardship. Nor did it have any presence in the divine Mind that governs the universe. And lacking divine purpose and presence, it had no power to harm him or tarnish his true, spiritual nature as a child of God.

These insights enabled me to thoroughly forgive this individual. They brought me tremendous freedom.

Corrie ten Boom also discovered the healing power of forgiveness. She had opened a home after the war for survivors of concentration camps, and noted that those who forgave their captors were able to rebuild their lives, no matter how serious their problems. Those who were not able to forgive didn’t experience healing in their lives.

Forgiveness brings freedom—mentally and physically—and it promotes our spiritual progress.

1 Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc., 1982), pp. 92–94.
2 Matt. 6:14, 15.
3 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 220.

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