Others have managed to forgive,

how can we?

Hearing accounts of others who have forgiven, we may well wonder how they managed it?

Just as we hope for forgiveness, others do as well. Their hope may be buried in the emotions of the moment. Initially, we will find it hard to convince ourselves that a raging, bitter, or screaming individual is seeking forgiveness. It’s hardly the way we would act in similar circumstances.

What the person so desperately wants is for their pain and suffering—their experienced humiliation, injury, fear, alienation, whatever—to stop. They don’t know that this is what they want, so they don’t yet know how to make it happen.

Recognizing what they are going through, we will better understand why they are acting the way they are. And by understanding, we will be much better placed to empathize with them. And by empathizing, just maybe we will be able to somehow figure out how to help diffuse the situation.

Or, at the very least, not make it worse.