Amish women pray outside schoolhouse
The outside world is trying to grapple with this whole Amish forgiveness thing and they have difficulty comprehending a group of people not only forgiving such atrocity, but offering financial assistance to the family of the murderer of their children. Check this out:
"The hurt is very great," Huntington said. "But they don't balance the hurt with hate."
In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and better security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue.
But that's not the Amish way. [bold mine]
In the aftermath of Monday's violence, the Amish have reached out to the family of the gunman, Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, who committed suicide during the attack in a one-room schoolhouse.
(Quotes above by Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher who has written a book about children in Amish society.)
Ok, so I've gotten a little carried away with this forgiveness thing. But can you imagine a world where everyone tries to out serve, out love, and out forgive one another? What if we took Jesus command to "forgive our enemies" seriously? What if we were all to "Love God, and love people" jsut like Jesus said? can you imagine the world we would live in?
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25NIV
Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, “I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19NLT
Jesus said, “Father, forgive these people, because they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Luke 23:34NLT
1 comment:
This is what a friend of ours commented on her blog:
"Stillness in the midst of chaos"
'Watching the story of the school shooting at the Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania yesterday I was so struck by the stillness of those who watched and waited outside. There was so little movement by the Amish men and women, even the boys on the log were much stiller than anyone should expect them to ever be. Men with arms crossed over their chests or hands in pockets...still. Women standing in the back, hardly moving...still. It was as if they were listening so very hard for a word from God.
"Be still and know that I am God". http://respublica.typepad.com/
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