“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” One way of obeying this reminder from the prophet Micah is showing mercy to oneself by refusing to nurse toxic emotions against a person or group (real or imagined) that has committed some kind of trespass or transgression.
Cherishing resentment toward anyone who has supposedly offended me is giving power to the offender, which is breaking the first commandment, because all power belongs to God and God alone, the only power.
As God’s creation, I am to have audience with Spirit, not to waste one moment in audience with the serpent of unforgiveness. Every moment spent indulging in unforgiveness is a moment lost forever. Far from showing mercy to oneself, harboring unforgiveness is a particularly burdensome species of self-sabotage as it quickly becomes toxic to the unforgiver.
Taking offense personally happens on the plane of personality, not Soul. Soul remains forever untouchable and untouched when sinned against. Soul is naturally immune to offense.
Sin is a boomerang the effects of which return to the sinner. Forgiveness of one’s offender mitigates the evil effects of the offense that would otherwise redound to the offender, thus sets the offender free, opening the path to repentance.
The life of Joseph presents an excellent thought-feeling response model in the face of bullying and ill-treatment. Joseph had plenty of “evidence” to “self-identify” as a victim, but refused to give any of it the slightest attention. In so doing justly to himself, showing mercy to himself, as the prophet Micah instructs, he was able to fulfill a magnificent destiny.
This video tells the story of a modern-day Joseph named Katya, who instinctively chose to respond to countless personal attacks impersonally, and the wonderful results of that response.
“Great things are done when Men & Mountains meet.
This is not done by jostling in the street.”
— William Blake