Last Friday, 20/20 did a show on forgiveness. One of the segments featured a man who have been wrongly convicted of a murdering someone. He spent 19 years in prison and was finally released because the real murderer came forward and confessed to the crime. The man in prison said that the only way he was able to make it through prison during those 19 years was because he chose to forgive. He forgave the prosecutor who prosecuted him for a crime he did not commit. He even helped the prosecutor campaign for reelection after he was released from prison.
He said that he had a choice to forgive or remain filled with hate. He could either choose to believe that he was a victim while he was in prison or he could choose to forgive and free himself from his anger. He chose to forgive.
This takes incredible courage and strength to forgive something like this. But this type of forgiveness really is not for the person who did the wrong. It is for the person who chooses to forgive. Forgiveness like this simply means to let go of a resentment. The results are both practical and profound because in that moment of letting go of a resentment a person begins to heal themself on a conscious and unconscious level.