Quotes from Timothy S. Lane

I need to keep practicing forgiveness every time I see you or think of you.

The health and maturity of a relationship are not measured by an absence of problems, but by the way the inevitable problems are handled.

Why is the process of forgiveness so important? Because even if you have forgiven someone for an offense, you will be tempted to think about it the next time you see her, or the next time she sins against you. Without realizing it, you will pile that sin on top of the old sins. This makes it harder and harder to forgive someone.

Forgiveness is not forgetting

The lies that capture us as Christians usually seem to fit well within the borders of our Christianity.

The word remember is not a "memory" word, but a "promise" word

Jesus was willing to be the forsaken brother so that we could have godly relationships. Jesus was willing to be the crucified King so that our communities would experience peace.

Forgiveness has a vertical and a horizontal dimension

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. 1

The hope of the gospel invites us to a holy dissatisfaction with all of our relationships, even—especially—those with few major problems.

I loved my family, but that night in the car I hit the wall of the reality of relationships in a fallen world.

Words can be powerful or they can be cheap. What makes words powerful is the action that flows from them. Theology also can be powerful or cheap. What makes right thinking about God powerful is the life that emerges daily from that theology.

Why bother with other people?

They're both right!

Mark 11:25 is talking about forgiveness as a heart attitude before God.

They have all faced the difficulty of having relationships with flawed people in a broken world, and they have opted to check out.

Yet something keeps dragging us back to other people. We know we are less than human when we are all alone.

When I consider someone's sin as I stand before the Lord, I am called to have an attitude of forgiveness toward the person who sinned against me. This is non-negotiable.

We live with this tension between self-protective isolation and the dream for meaningful relationships.

Luke 17:3, on the other hand, is talking about forgiveness as a horizontal transaction between me and the offender. This is often referred to as reconciliation.

Self-righteousness is your own personal defense attorney.

What tendency do you observe in your life?

I can only grant forgiveness to the other person if he repents and admits he has sinned against me.