Forgiveness

I've always been a big advocate of forgiveness - usually when it comes to almost anything. Lately, there's been a lot of talk about forgiving.. (more so when we talk about sinning and forgiveness at church). I just wish people were more forgiving in their lives. I know it's not always easy and for some major things, you just don't or can't forgive someone, but it's such a burden to bear when you hold onto those feelings. I was remembering the other night, when it came up at church, a time in my life that I forgave someone quickly and without a second thought -
When my brother was hit by a car a few years back.. I was scared to death! He was in critical condition initially, which always scares the pants off of you... and I can remember most of my family just wanting to hurt the guy who hit him..and just wishing bad things on him.. but what I remember about myself is that I found myself wondering about the man that hit him. Wondering if he was ok and if he was worried about my brother? I knew he was. I wanted to go to his home and tell him that he my brother was going to be ok, just so that he'd know and could get some peace from it. It wasn't intentional - the man stopped when he hit him. Who knows to this day; what really happened that day. All that matters is that my brother is here today. I know that a couple people probably still wonder how I had such compassion for this man, but it's not really hard to explain. It actually gave me peace that I could forgive him.. It was an accident.