Gravity

If you have ever touched a hot pan and burned yourself, you do not want to repeat that mistake. It's a lesson you only need to learn once. The burn heals, the pain fades, but the memory stays.

I've been thinking about guilt from recent failures. Try as I may to live out the love defined in 1 Corinthians 13, I still struggle and fail. Seeking God more diligently than I ever have, I find myself making less mistakes; I see myself slowly transforming into a better person. Yet, I still make them. I still hurt others when I fall back to a mindset of selfishness rather than sacrificial love. I feel guilty a lot, especially now that I'm more aware of my failures and measure myself against a standard of God's love and not the standard of what the world judges as reasonable.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

I feel like the natural response to feeling that guilt, or any negative emotion, is to flee from it. Or suppress it. Or marginalize it. Or justify it. Any desperate thing or thought to make the pain stop. What if the best thing for us is to accept the guilty feelings? Accept the regret. Let ourselves feel it and not hide from it. It's not comfortable to face and accept that we can't go back and change the past. What is broken cannot always be fixed by our efforts. We fail, and there are consequences of those failures.

Remember, of course, God can restore. I'm not saying we should embrace hopelessness, but rather accept gravity. I don't mean that we do nothing to make amends. If you hurt someone, apologize. Offer whatever salve you can to make amends and to right wrongs. Also, repent in prayer to God. He will forgive, and the weight of your sin can be lifted. You don't need to walk crushed by every mistake; you can accept His forgiveness.

What I am saying is that there are cycles that need to be broken. Flesh that needs crucified with Christ. The world needs more from us, who believe. Change in us results in change in the world.

We need to remember that the pan is hot.