On Messing Up

Some recent conversations with several different people talking about the same thing left me thinking a great deal about how we mess up, how bad it makes us feel, how we feel without hope or peace, how God loves us and forgives us, what He requires from us going forward, what we seem to require from ourselves, what others we offended or hurt think about us, what price we wind up paying for our mistakes, what price has already been paid, etc... 

There's some common ground, yeah?.  We all deal with that.  We've all made mistakes.  Even though I feel like I have surely made way more mistakes than you.  I've  messed up and dissapointed others and myself and fallen short of God's standard for my life more times than I can count.  So my situation has to be way worse than yours, right?  Ever feel that way?  Ever feel like hope and peace just evaporate when you think about the things you've done wrong?

One of the really cool things about the Bible, is that we get all these seriously gritty, real-life stories about people that did things that were so bad, you and I would probably never forgive them.  I mean the Bible is full of stories of people that God loved, lying to, cheating, stealing from, abusing, and even murdering other people.  This cast of real-life characters aren't the "dregs" of Bible lore.  Far from it.  They're people like Moses, Jacob, David and Paul just to name a few.  And you know what?  God redeemed their lives.  And God used them in a huge way to accomplish his purpose.  It didn't mean that they didn't suffer any ill-effect from their actions.  In Christ sin is forgiven, but there are always consequences to our actions. 

There were surely people who were negatively impacted by the mistakes, the sin, of Moses and Jacob and David and Paul and many others.  There were surely people who looked at them, wondering how they had the gaul and the temerity to continue calling themselves human after some of the things they had done.  There were surely people who chose to resent them and point at, look at, gossip about, criticize the things they had done wrong, rather than see how God gloriously redeemed their lives.  There were surely people who simply did not, or would not understand.

Should it surprise us then that some we have hurt wonder what business we have calling ourselves saved and forgiven?  Should it surprise us when some who have been negatively impacted by our mistakes, our sin, wonder what right we have to go on sucking air after the havoc we have wreaked?  Should it surprise us that there are those who would look at our faults, our flaws, our mistakes, our sin and criticize and gossip and be filled with resentment toward us rather than focus on how God has gloriously redeemed our lives?  Should it surprise us that there will be people who simply do not, or will not understand?

You and I have something else in common.  We cannot change our past.  If you have come to faith in God through his Son Jesus Christ, you are FORGIVEN.  You're life has been REDEEMED.  Perhaps the fact that there may be people in our lives who aren't jumping up and down celebrating that reality with us, is part of the cost of our sin, that we pay for here and now in this life.  Consequences.  That is also something we have in common that we cannot change.  What do we do about it?  Make amends, and move on in humility.  You are forgiven.  Your life has been redeemed.  You're not what you once were. 

If we're honest, wanting others to see and know that we are forgiven, redeemed, better off than before, is part of what got us in trouble in the first place.  We want them to think we're better than they remember us.  It's a pride sort of thing, yeah?  In the end, whether others recognize or place any value on our salvation and forgiveness of sin through Christ it is not nearly as important as whether we recognize it and place enough value on it to live the new life and, as Jesus told one person, "go and sin no more".

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".  Romans 12:13