Anatomy of Forgiveness Replies

In “Let the Devil Sleep,” a wise Tutsi survivor advises that when one asks for forgiveness, they are humbled. The goal is to rebuild the country, and the people recognize that this purpose cannot be fulfilled while living in the past with such hatred. In order to rebuild the country, the people of Rwanda had to reconcile and come together in unity. The three ideas from the most recent course readings that most help to explain this situation are first to pursue peace with God, understanding relational and situational peace, and the three steps for human beings to please God, repent, and love. 

Jones begins by explaining, “The proper starting place to think biblically about pursuing peace is God [...] And what has this God done? He has made peace with us, he pours out his peace on us and into us, and he calls and enables us to pursue peace with others” (Jones 19). Jones also talks about relational peace and situational peace in heaven. While we are living in a secular world, we can nonetheless as Christians accept the peace that God gives with grace and allow the spirit to go through us in order to promote peace to His other children. Jones also asks, “What does God see when He sees conflict? What does he want us to see?” (30) This is important to ask when events such as the Rwanda genocide take place. 

When human beings experience tradgedies such as this genocide, it takes a toll on the spirit of man. Jones advises us to realize that conflicts are normal and inevitable, but most importantly opportunities to seize for the glory of God (Jones 37). In this situation, it is most helpful to recognize that even horrific conflicts can give us the opportunity to love and minister to others as the Lord has done for us (Jones 41).

Perhaps the most relevant wisdom from Jones is preventative: please God, repent, and love the person (45). If we aim to please God in the first place, our actions will be actions of love before and during conflict. With a humble attitude of repentance, we will be more self-aware and will be more self aware before outwardly blaming others. In this goal of prevention, we must be aware of heart sins, which are the beliefs and motives which cause behavior sins in words and actions. 

Jones uses Matthew 7:3-5 to exemplify the importance of self-evaluation before throwing stones, so to speak. Jesus says, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Holy Bible). 

This moment affected me because I realize how evil and terrifying the world in which we live is for some people. This video made me feel as if in this great country, we were all living in some grand delusion of grandeur. Just because we are not met with such terrible evil every day doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It also seems unfair that some of us are so blessed to live in safety that we are too ignorant to fully appreciate. 

My conclusion is that conflict is bound to happen in this imperfect world, however it happens based on actions of selfishness which are not of God. Therefore by aiming to please God and not ourselves, our motivation will be pure of spirit. As one of the Rwanda perpetrators says, the guilty party has to seek forgiveness and place themselves in the hands of God. The most important part of this process, according to the perpetrators, appeared to be to tell the whole story with no lies. The perpetrator said, “It was difficult for me to face the truth.” However, by facing the truth, the citizens of Rwanda are able to look toward the future with hope, which is one of God’s many blessings and will keep the devil at bay.

References

The Holy Bible: King James Version: A Word-for-Word Reprint of the First Edition of The Authorized Version, Presented in Roman Letters for Easy Reading and Comparison with Subsequent Editions. Thomas Nelson, 1993.

Let the Devil Sleep : Rwanda 20 Years after Genocide.

Jones, Robert D. Pursuing Peace: A Christian Guide to Handling Our Conflicts. Crossway, 2012.