“Hari ini kita memang tak boleh bagi discount…sebab kita belanja kamu, kerana hari ini kamu sudah nak balik ke KL.”
As we wanted to pay for our breakfast, with a deadpan face, the Malay owner of a streetside warung (small restaurant) that we’ve returned to three times for our meals, said to us, “We can’t give you a discount today, it’s impossible to give a discount…because we are treating you to this meal, as you are going back to KL (Kuala Lumpur) today.”
My eyes widen in a pleasant yet hesitant surprise. My husband and I wanted to return his gift of generosity. “No, no, I protested. We want to bless your business too.”
Nasi lemak (fragrant coconut rice) with fried tempeh and fried anchovies
As we cycled back the short distance to our hotel, my heart burst open in joyful amazement of their genuine generosity, and I almost cried in gratitude. That was our parting memory of Langkawi. We were there for two weeks of work and travel.
It’s been a few weeks since we are back from this beautiful island. Not a day passed where I didn’t think of our experience there. And of our new Malay friends from the warung.
In fact, on the second day of our return, I received a Whatsapp from one of the ladies there, with a simple keeping in touch message of asking if I’ve started work, “Sudah mula bekerja ke?” “Have you started to work?”
Of which I proceeded to chat and connect with her, fumbling with my iPhone’s English language keyboard which insisted on changing the Malay words to something else.
As I looked at the cute sticker she sent to me, of a tudung-wearing lady making a heart gesture, I smiled in amazement. This is a whole new experience for me. I’ve never really had Malay friends, especially friends who don’t speak English.
And I’m usually more guarded. You know, as in, urbanite-guarded. Often, I tend to stick to the usual and familiar surrounding. Watchful and uncomfortable to go beyond.
But with travelling, it puts us in a new environment every day. Especially when we travel with our bicycles; without a holiday-maker mindset but with an explorer mindset instead. Where we tend to favour eating where the locals eat. And minimise being demarcated to tourist strips.
Bicycling has this fantastic advantage where we can go further, slower, and meet new friends. Even if it’s just offering a smile and a wave—it’s like leaving the fragrance of flowers wherever you go. The giver and the receiver, both blessed.
Our Langkawi stay has been like that. A beautiful memory of immersion with the Malay community, eating *nasi lemak, nasi campur, pulut ikan masin, speaking broken Malay interspersed with lots of smiles, cycling along kampung road and houses, with cute kids and old folks alike waving and smiling to us as we pedalled passed them.
For the urbanite us, we were in wonder of a completely different environment and lifestyle. The pace; slower. The people; friendlier, kinder, generous with their smiles. Perhaps a simpler way of living—leads to more generous and happier people.
*for my non-Malaysian readers. : ) Nasi lemak: fragrant coconut rice. Nasi campur: rice with a selection of dishes, mini buffet style. Pulut ikan masin: Glutinous rice with fried salted fish. Kampung: village.
I’m convinced this is the most radical prayer anyone can pray. Because if we love another person—our fellow brothers and sisters on this earth—we won’t kill, steal, cheat, destroy, slander, gossip, manipulate, oppress, suppress, violate, take advantage.
If we can love, we will want to understand another person and not let differences in colour, language, sexual orientation, and religion create division and war in our hearts, if not, literal wars.
Linger. This word resonates with my heart. It seems to be the word my soul is whispering to me…and a plea to some of us in this harried world.
Linger
Linger for a coffee, a meal, a chat with a friend; linger so you can see when you can lend someone a helping hand.
Linger for a touch, a stroke on your children’s hair, a smile to a stranger, often the littlest mean so much
Linger for silence; a precious space to be in God’s presence
Linger…when things get too much, close your eyes and breathe, there you’ll find relief.
Linger…smile awhile, rest awhile, laugh awhile, read awhile, let your racing heart just slowly walk awhile; when you are back on track in the centre, you’ll find God there;
lovingly waiting for you all these while.
My friends, I hope you’ll remember to enjoy the pleasure of lingering over moments.
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realise the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realise that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
I wonder how many people have zero unforgiveness in their hearts? Is it possible?
Or will we journey through life, forgiving someone but soon enough there’ll be someone else we’d place in our “unforgiveness’ queue?
Whatever it is, unforgiveness stinks. It makes a corner of our hearts dark.
For some people, boy, you know they harbour unforgiveness in them—it shows.
The more dangerous ones though are those who shove their unforgiveness away; there, stuffed in between the crevices of their heart—while they go on with their lives—cheerful face on.
Not knowing that somewhere in their hearts, the unforgiveness is like a termites infestation. Those destructive little critters eating away from the inside, unseen at first, yet will eventually bring destruction to the outside if left undetected and unresolved.
Have I frightened you yet? Because I have sure frightened myself.
Why is it so difficult to forgive?
Because some of us don’t really understand what forgiveness is. And how to forgive.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting.
Let me begin with one of my pet peeves—when people say, forgive and forget. I don’t buy it. Unless one is unfortunately struck with amnesia or something similar, we’ll remember what others did to us. Forgiving others doesn’t mean we forget what happened. Oh, but how I wish that’d be the case. Then I won’t have to wince in pain when those memories trigger. Or feel like punching them in the face.
So I gotta choose—to allow those thoughts to torment me, or learn to say, “God, thank You for reminding me to forgive as You had forgiven me.”
Forgiveness doesn’t mean letting the offender mistreat you again and again.
What about repeated offences? It’s one thing to forgive someone for a one-off incident, it’s quite another to have to deal with repeated hurts. Let’s face it—some people are just mean-spirited. These people exist. They could even be in your family. Another type of person could be those who are plain unreliable or immature in his or her ways.
I know people say, walk away from friends or people who continuously hurt you. But what if the person is family?
In my case, I have no option of cutting those strings off. To cope while struggling to forgive, I had to keep a distance (sometimes physically). Just so I don’t be a martyr and place myself in front of those people and say, “go ahead and slaughter me with your words and actions; my God is big, and He’s with me.” Are you kidding me? Of course, my God is all-powerful, and He’ll heal my wounds—but He didn’t give me a brain to not think and not have the wisdom to keep being subjected to lack of respect and nasty treatments.
So, forgiveness doesn’t mean letting the offender mistreat you again and again. And it doesn’t say that you need to play the victim role and let the person walk all over you.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean there won’t be justice.
Another reason why it’s so difficult to forgive is we want to control. We might think that if we forgive, it means that we are ok with the offence. So we wanna control our “rights” to their “wrongs”. Gripping the offence tightly in our hearts gives us a false sense of justice.
Knowing that God is the final judge helps me to tame that resentment monster. I’m not saying I’m rubbing my palms with evil glee, waiting for God to punish the person. I’m practising letting go of taking things into my hands and releasing them to God instead. The former, bad for the heart; the latter, excellent for sanity.
Forgiveness doesn’t depend on them saying sorry.
Forgiveness is not about tit-for-tat either. Often I don’t wanna forgive because I want that person to know how wrong they are. But waiting for the person to change is giving the other person control over us and our sanity. So, forgiveness is not based on others’ actions but our choice.
Forgiveness is not a feeling.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean you’ll no longer feel the pain, ever. Also, you don’t need to feel happy before you can forgive. (Or have to feel you have to like the person.)
Forgiveness is a process, not a one-time event.
My repeated prayer to God was, “Father, I know I need to forgive, but I can’t. Though I can’t, I still choose to forgive. But Father, please heal my broken heart. Help me.” That last line became the bridge on my journey to forgiveness. “Father, please, heal my broken heart.”
However, we wanna be careful and be real with our emotional struggles especially when the pain is fresh. When my heart was shattered into pieces and engulfed in the fire of pain; although I know the Bible has many scriptures on forgiveness, and Christ has demonstrated the greatest love and forgiveness to me—I still can’t forgive! I was an emotional wreck.
Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one who inflicted it. And yet, there’s no peace without forgiveness.
Marianne Williamson
So, be kind to yourself as God knows your condition. Be careful not to merely cover your wounds and hinder the healing process. Forgiveness is a process, not a one-time event.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean reconciliation.
Not every relationship will have reconciliation after forgiveness, though some do. Even if there’s no reconciliation, we still can choose to forgive someone. If you ask, “what’s the point of forgiveness if we can’t reconcile?” Just remember the termites in your heart, chew chew chew, bite bite bite.
Do I do all that I’ve shared?
Even though I’m convicted to the core of what I’ve written, sometimes there’s a stubborn side of me who prefers not to do any of the above. Preferring the safety of darkness; locking myself in as a willing prisoner.
That’s when I whipped up the greatest weapon ever—prayer.
Whether I feel like it or not, I’d choose (ok, sometimes I had to force myself) to pray for the people who’ve wronged me.
Sometimes I pray in my own words. Sometimes I use a guided prayer.
Often what started out as a reading of those printed words on the guided prayer turns into my prayer. It became real from within me. It became a cry to God. To change my heart. To heal where it’s needed. To feel compassion and love for the other person. To ask for forgiveness for myself and claim responsibility if I’ve played a part in the strained or broken relationship.
I find my heart slowly changing towards the person. For some, I even see changes in the person! Now…one might wonder; is it my heart who’s changed or is it them?
Whatever it is, this is the truth:
One can’t sincerely pray for another person and remain angry at them.
Prayer to forgive others.
If you have someone to forgive, and you wanna take a step forward in the forgiveness process, I’d invite you to think of them now. And pray along with this prayer:
Lord, I bring to mind (name) I bring him/her before You
I feel hurt by them Right now I confess any negative feelings I have about them I forgive the wrongs they have done towards me For any deliberate or unintentional things they have done That have caused me pain In the best way that I know how, I fully forgive them
I release them to You
Now that I have forgiven (name) I choose not to hold any grudges towards him/her Thank you that as I am praying now You are freeing my inner world to live again Free from resentment, pain and bitterness Filled with joy, freedom and love
I thank You for Your love and kindness toward me. It is Your kindness that has led me to repentance, turning from all my sinful ways and turning to You. I admit that I have not been kind, patient and loving to others when they have offended me. I have allowed bitterness and resentment to grow in me, separating me from others and You, Father.
At times, I have forgotten this unforgiveness in my heart. This unforgiveness festers deep within me, at times beyond my conscious reach. This affects every aspect of my life and gives the enemy a right to torment me as stated in Matthew 18. I confess that this unforgiveness and bitterness is affecting my life and relationships today. Because of these past hurts, I acknowledge the inability to love or trust others to any depth.
I understand that forgiveness is not an emotion but an act of my will. I now choose to exercise my will to forgive others as You, Father, have forgiven me. Father, I know that You are a searcher of the heart. I ask You to search my heart. Reveal to me any hidden and secret unforgiveness or bitterness toward others that have hurt or offended me.
I choose not to be ruled by a spirit of bitterness. I choose to forgive and have a spirit of peace and love in my heart. I repent, forgive and release these people right now. I ask You, Heavenly Father, to forgive me and restore me as I forgive those who have offended me. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would bring everything to our remembrance.
Dear Holy Spirit,
I am asking You to bring to my remembrance anyone I have to forgive and I will forgive them in Jesus’ name. Amen.
(I’ve lost the link to the original author/article. My apologies as I’m unable to give credit to the original author/article.)
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can really hurt me.
This old saying from the 1800s, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can’t hurt me” was meant to be used as a defence against verbal bullying. It was intended to help the bullied person develop resilience.
I wonder—what’s the full devastating effect in the person, years on. Saying it doesn’t hurt him or her when it does.
It’s silly to think our hearts are not delicate.
That it’ll be able to withstand verbal punches and kicks. Especially true for young kids. Kids absorb the words said about them, and it remains in their memory decades on. Often, without them being aware of it. And they carry it with them to adulthood.
As adults, we too are slapped with intentional, hurtful remarks. Or unintentional, careless words. Sometimes it happens when we open up our heart to share something, and our vulnerability is met with unhelpful comments. Sometimes, the mess of someone repeatedly hurt and disappoints us.
Do those things happen to you?
My defence is to close that door to the heart. I don’t want to do that. It’s a defence mechanism. But one door after another closes.
And I wonder, would all the doors in my heart, one day, be shut off to the world? Would you shut off your doors too?
But I’d say—don’t.
Keep one door open, always. Keep one door open to the One who created you—just as you are. Who loves you—just as you are. Keep that door open to the One. Because that’s your lifeline.
That’s your key to eventually reopen the other doors in your heart. Keep the door open to God and let Him into your heart.
