When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it. – Lewis B. Smedes
The right to personal privacy is precious. Without it, we are all potential victims for a prying secret police. – Lewis B. Smedes
God does not give us salvation because we believe. Our believing is only the normal way of receiving the salvation he freely gives. – Lewis B. Smedes
When we have been badly injured and clearly wronged, we make an instant caricature of the person who did it to us. We define him totally by the one wrong he did. – Lewis B. Smedes
Modern Americans suffer from a fear of judging. Passing judgment on the behavior of fellow human beings is considered an act of medieval, undemocratic intolerance. – Lewis B. Smedes
Nobody sees reality whole; we all need others to show us the parts of it that they see better than we do. Nobody sees reality with total accuracy; we all need others to correct our own vision. – Lewis B. Smedes
At the cross, God was punishing Jesus for the sins of the world. God’s justice required a penalty from sinners, and in his unspeakable love, he paid the penalty himself in the person of his crucified Son. – Lewis B. Smedes
Promise keeping is a powerful means of grace in a time when people hardly depend on each other to remember and live by their word. – Lewis B. Smedes
The problem with revenge is that it never evens the score. It ties both the injured and the injurer to an escalator of pain. Both are stuck on the escalator as long as parity is demanded, and the escalator never stops. – Lewis B. Smedes
Some people still make promises and keep those they make. When they do, they help make life around them more stably human. – Lewis B. Smedes
We are anxious in the face of our unchangeable past; we long to recreate segments of our private histories, but we are stuck with them. – Lewis B. Smedes
No doubt, corporate CEOs who lie to their shareholders and politicians who lie to their public know and believe intellectually that lying is immoral. Why then do they lie? They lie to others because they first lie to themselves. – Lewis B. Smedes
Restorative justice is not a replacement of retributive justice, but a complement. It seeks the rehabilitation of the wrongdoer and the repair of the victim’s injury. – Lewis B. Smedes
Some people have loved ones they will not forsake, even though they are a pain in the neck. – Lewis B. Smedes
You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well. – Lewis B. Smedes
What is a disloyal act? A person is disloyal if he treats you as a stranger when, in fact, he belongs to you as a friend or partner. Each of us is bound to some special others by the invisible fibers of loyalty. – Lewis B. Smedes
Any lazy or biased fool can have opinions; making judgments is the hard work of responsible and compassionate people. – Lewis B. Smedes
Seeing reality for what it is is what we call discernment. The work of discernment is very hard. – Lewis B. Smedes
I believe that we should, on biblical grounds, tell all parents of mentally disabled children that God loves their children, regrets terribly that they are disabled, and will, when they die, carry them gently into a heavenly life where every person is forever whole. – Lewis B. Smedes
Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. – Lewis B. Smedes
