Do the responses of other people matter in the process of healing?

It doesn't matter what other people do in response to you. If it's clean on your end, you begin to heal. It doesn't matter what they say or do. Even if they ridicule you or crucify you, you begin to heal. To me, that was Jesus' most powerful teaching: If you show enough compassion in your heart, it frees you even if others remain in ignorance and darkness. In the long run, it helps to free them, too, but it begins to free your heart immediately.

Chances are, your congregation will embrace you and you'll have set an example that other people can then begin to emulate. You become a true leader in the congregation. But even if they don't, you begin to heal. It's clean on you r end. You've given the power to make yourself sick to the person you hate the most. That's the irony. It's an empowering realization: If you are doing it, then you can stop doing it.