And who is my enemy?
Essays by our readers reminded me of the call to forgive “70 times seven,” especially in relationships with people we can’t eject from our lives.
Who is the psalmist talking about when he cries out to God to “Deliver me from my enemies”? Perhaps you’ve winced, as I have, at the psalmist’s raw anger and his uncomfortable clarity about what should happen to his enemies. (“Let burning coals fall on them!”)
In our latest installment of essays by readers, our writers bravely name their enemies, past and present. They admit their pain, their ongoing struggles to forgive, and their struggles to survive living alongside someone who wants to do them harm.
Some of our writers’ stories reminded me of times when I’ve reacted too quickly, assigning “enemy” status to someone who has angered or annoyed me, and not waiting to consider my unreliable and unfair emotions. One writer, an airplane traveler, realizes that she’d labeled two noisy fellow passengers as enemies before she’d even seen them. A man remembers pummeling the school bully on the school playground; as an adult he rues his quick aggression and imagines reacting differently.
