by Brianne Welch | Jan 28, 2014 | Uncategorized
Author of Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet and Bread and Wine, Shauna Niequist addressed every college students’ favorite subject, relationships, in the Gathering Tuesday morning. Niequist’s plan was to talk about the “secret and the heart of all relationships.” With that opening statement, she grabbed the audience’s attention. She followed up that statement later on with the one sentence that she feels the need to say whenever she is at a college campus. “Whoever you are, male or female, freshman or senior, single or dating or engaged or married,” Niequist said. “You are significant with or without a significant other.” Niequist made the statement to remind students how significant they are, and that being a part of a couple does not make a person more important, and also to remind students that everyone’s life timeline is different. After making her opening remarks, Niequist’s got to her main point of discussion, the secret of relationships, which she says is forgiveness. Forgiveness when dating, in the family and with friendships. Niequist stressed the importance of friendships at this time in a person’s life. “Worry less about dating and invest more in friends,” Niequist said. While talking about friendships, she made the point that even those will not last unless forgiveness is active in the relationship. She said that conflict is inevitable, and the only way to maintain those relationships is by being able to forgive. “When brokenness happens in a relationship it doesn’t mean it’s over, it means it’s normal,” Niequist said. The next thing Niequist addressed was how to forgive and what it means to be a forgiver. She says it is...
by despotmj | Jul 3, 2011 | News Slider
As part of Lipscomb University’s Summer Celebration, many speakers were on Lipscomb’s campus this past week speaking on a variety of spiritual topics. Thursday morning, Hillsboro Church of Christ minister Daniel Hope spoke on the topic of forgiveness. Hope’s lesson began by mentioning a number of highly-publicized tragedies, and how those involved displayed great forgiveness after enduring very traumatizing events. He mentioned the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, and described the Pope’s forgiveness of the shooter just days after leaving the hospital. Hope also mentioned a deadly shooting within an Amish community in 2006, and how the community came together to setup a fund for the gunmen’s children. An act which provided a great deal of healing for the shooter’s devastated family. These acts of forgiveness are often times not displayed on a large-scale by Christians, but Hope reminded the audience that Jesus himself told Paul to forgive a transgressor 77 times before giving up on another. Hope’s lesson was one which dove into a number of questions relating to forgiveness which Christians can often struggle with. He tackled tough questions and provided a response that forgiveness is not about forgetting an act or the absence of hurt, but rather it is about forgiving an unpayable debt. “Forgiveness is a decision and journey,” Hope said. “It is a commitment to the process of ceasing to demand restitution.” Part of this decision and journey is that one must work to get to a point where they can get over bitterness. “One cannot take sin more lightly than God, because sin is a big deal, and we must not...
