The Long Arc of Forgiveness with Wm Paul Young

 

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp Online Therapy.

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What does it really mean to forgive someone who has hurt you?

And what if forgiveness isn't a single moment when you suddenly let everything go, but a long, winding journey of releasing expectations, grieving what was lost, and learning to see another person as human?

Paul Young returns to Typology for a deeply honest conversation about forgiveness, redemption, regret, and hope. Best known as the author of The Shack, Paul has spent years thinking about what it means to encounter God in the middle of our deepest wounds. His newest book, The Return of the Shack, grew in part out of his friendships with men on death row and his questions about justice, mercy, and what forgiveness looks like when the harm is almost impossible to comprehend.

Paul shares what he learned when he finally released his lifelong expectations of his father—and how doing so allowed him to see his dad not simply as “my father,” but as a human being with his own wounds and story. He talks about the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation, why forgiveness is a process rather than an event, and what it means to have a “sorrow day” instead of running from grief.

We also get into the struggle to forgive ourselves, the danger of turning God's redemption of our mistakes into an excuse for the harm we've caused, and the surprising power of living in the present rather than constantly trying to control the future.

Life can be hard. We can be wounded. We can wound others. We can lose people we love. We can carry regret.

And yet.

There is still beauty. There is still grace. There is still the possibility of redemption. And there is still a song that is ours to sing.

About Wm. Paul Young

Wm. Paul Young was born in Canada and raised among a Stone Age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of former New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult and now enjoys the “wastefulness of grace” with his family in the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of Lies We Believe About God and the New York Times bestsellers The Shack, Cross Roads, and Eve.


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Relationships, Spirituality, Grief, TraumaIan Cronenneagram, spirituality, Relationships, HealingComment