Beckie and I had a recent experience that brought up this word and the need for a whisper. We trusted someone near and dear to our hearts, and they completely betrayed that trust. I have always believed that just because a person breaches your trust, that does not necessarily mean they are untrustworthy (tee tee). It simply means that they will need to demonstrate actions that lead to earning trust once again. But in this case, Beckie offered redemption in exchange for truth. This did not mean instant trust, though, simply a dialogue around what happened.
In the Bible, redemption involves deliverance from bondage based on the payment of a price by a redeemer. Redemption is defined as the act of making something better or more acceptable. Redemption was, according to Friedrich Nietzsche (a German philosopher, cultural critic, poet, and Latin/Greek scholar), not a deliverance from sin, but a total affirmation of life, with all its pain, suffering, and absurdity
Is truth a form of redemption that rebuilds the bridge to trust? Is it naive to think that a person can change when they refuse to take responsibility? Is offering redemption an affirmation of love and life-giving? Do we decide redemption, or would that be judging others? The questions are piling up, which means time for a whisper on redemption:
True redemption comes from the realm of divine providence and cannot be awarded by humans. Trust is an emotion and a core value that can be felt, but not necessarily a truth. People can be too trusting by nature, leading to spiritual bypassing. Trust can be extended, but in the final analysis is determined by judgment, feelings, and the senses of every individual.
Redemption is a price paid by the redeemer and salvaged by the human soul, often through suffering for the actions committed that are void of love. You cannot fake redemption, for it comes from the heart and is measured by faith. Actions based in truth are the measure of redemption, so an action that offers redemption cannot be faked or contrived.
Any payment for past transgression against divine Universal laws must come from an act of love, an act of service, an act of gratitude, an act of truth, an act of kindness, or an expression of extreme vulnerability. Love has redemptive qualities that hold the power to transform the past into the present reality. Love is the seed of redemption that offers transcendence when nurtured into spiritual growth.
A true apology is a shared experience that acknowledges the pain of a life experience. Within a moment that holds the vibration of sorrow, one can experience the consequences of their actions. In this way, two people can amend the pain felt by a shared experience so that redemption fills the vacuum created by the separation felt in a moment of betrayal. The soul can mend all wounds to restore trust whenever love is offered to become the bonding energy connecting every person to each other and to divinity.
Redemption follows the energy of love wherever it goes and whomever it touches.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“Grace abounds in contemporary movies, books, novels, films and music. If God is not in the whirlwind, He may be in a Woody Allen film, or a Bruce Springsteen concert. Most people understand imagery and symbol better than doctrine and dogma. Images touch hearts and awaken imaginations. One theologian suggested that Springsteen's 'Tunnel of Love' album, in which he symbolically sings of sin, death, despair and redemption, is more important for Catholics than the Pope's last visit when he spoke of morality only in doctrinal propositions.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
