{"id":4019,"date":"2024-09-19T07:25:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T11:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4019"},"modified":"2024-09-19T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T11:26:08","slug":"the-path-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/19\/the-path-of-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Path of Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

Malcom Gladwell, longtime staff writer for the New Yorker, <\/em>is known for a series of celebrated bestsellers.

They include The Tipping Point, Blink, <\/em>and Outliers.<\/em>

Gladwell has a knack for uncovering interesting stories in unexpected places, and demonstrating how things we expect to find often turn out to be surprisingly different.

He grew up a Mennonite \u2013 a small branch of Christianity known for its gentleness and pacifism. But Gladwell\u2019s faith evaporated when he moved to New York, a city not known for bolstering gentleness and pacifism.

Then, 11 years ago, he visited the home of Cliff and Wilma Derksen, a Mennonite couple living in Winnipeg, Canada.

In 1984 their daughter Candace had been kidnapped by a sexual predator. The largest manhunt in the city\u2019s history followed. Police ultimately found the 13-year-old\u2019s frozen body in a shed. Her hands and feet had been bound.

After the funeral, Cliff made a statement at a press conference. \u201cWe would like to know who the person or persons are so we could share, hopefully, a love that seems to be missing in these people\u2019s lives.\u201d

Wilma added: \u201cI can\u2019t say at this point I forgive this person.\u201d Everyone noticed that she had stressed the words at this point<\/em>. \u201cWe have all done something dreadful in our lives, or have felt the urge to.\u201d

No one could imagine grieving parents saying such things.

Twenty-two years went by before Candace\u2019s murderer was brought to justice. Wilma writes, \u201cLittle did I know that the word forgiveness would haunt me for the next 30 years \u2013 prod me, guide me, heal me, label me, enlighten me, imprison me, free me, and in the end define me.\u201d

Gladwell, who was researching his book David and Goliath<\/em>, wanted to know how this couple had been able to avoid falling into the abyss of rage and revenge. He writes, \u201cSomething happened to me when I sat in Wilma Derksen\u2019s garden. 

\u201cIt is one thing to read in a history book about people empowered by their faith. But it is quite another to meet an otherwise very ordinary person, in the backyard of a very ordinary house, who has managed to do something utterly extraordinary.

\u201cTheir daughter was murdered. And the first thing the Derksens did was to stand up at a press conference and talk about the path to forgiveness.\u201d

He adds, \u201cMaybe we have difficulty seeing the weapons of the spirit because we don\u2019t know where to look, or because we are distracted by the louder claims of material advantage.

\u201cBut I\u2019ve seen them now, and I will never be the same.\u201d

An horrific act of evil, calculated to bring little more than pain and sorrow into the world, instead accomplished something else.

Redeemed by the courage of a hurting mom and dad trying to find their way forward, it brought Malcom Gladwell back to faith.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Malcom Gladwell, longtime staff writer for the New Yorker, is known for a series of celebrated bestsellers. They include The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. Gladwell has a knack for uncovering interesting stories in unexpected places, and demonstrating how things we expect to find often turn out to be surprisingly different…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-4019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-forgiveness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4022,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4019\/revisions\/4022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}