Response:
Happy New Year! I should be taking the day off today, enjoying time with family, watching parades and bowl games. But instead, I’m finishing this post for you, primarily so I won’t experience more feelings of guilt. So why do I feel guilty right now? Am I feeling guilty for ignoring my family? How should I deal with my guilty feelings? Should I do my job and respond to your question or should I put family first? Woe is me; I’m clothed in guilt!
How about you? How long did it take you to break your “New Year’s Resolutions” this time? Overeat over the holidays…yet again? Feeling a little guilty, are you??? …And well you should; you ARE guilty! We all are. We’re guilty of so many failings, who can possibly keep track? Oh, that’s right; God keeps track. Hmmmmm…. Let’s chat about our failures (I’d rather talk about yours than mine). Let’s talk about GUILT.
As President Obama enters his second year in office, he may want to take some advice from Pastor John Ortberg who shared the following story about trying to recover from failure:
A CEO has taken on a new job, and the outgoing CEO says to him, "Sometimes you'll make wrong choices. You will. You'll mess up. When that happens, I have prepared three envelopes for you. I left them in the top drawer of the desk. The first time it happens, open #1. The second time you mess up, open #2. The third time, open #3."
For the first few months, everything goes fine. Then the CEO makes his first mistake, goes to the drawer, opens up envelope #1, and the message reads, "Blame me." So he does: "This is the old CEO's fault. He made these mistakes. I inherited these problems." Everybody says, "Okay." It works out pretty well.
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his second mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #2. This time he reads, "Blame the board." And he does: "It's the board's fault. The board has been a mess. I inherited them. They're the problem." Everybody says, "Okay, that makes sense."
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his third mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #3. The message reads: "Prepare three envelopes."
Making wrong choices can lead us to guilt. Guilt can devastate and destroy us. It can paralyze our perception of who we are and what we were created to accomplish. Guilt is destructive. That is one reason I do not believe guilt is from God. Psalm 51:2-3 reads like this in the NLT:
2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunt me day and night.
This Scripture describes the anatomy of human failure. In verse 2, it’s made up of GUILT, which needs washing. And it’s made up of SIN which needs purifying. This Psalm utilizes a device called Hebrew Poetry where two ideas are rhymed. Verse 3 details why we need to be washed and purified from the guilt we feel when we blow it: I’m preoccupied and troubled 24/7 by my rebellion against God (it haunts me day and night), a rebellion I can see a mile away (I recognize my rebellion).
Guilt and sin are often associated together in the Bible. But is guilt a “gift from God”, sent to make us turn from our sin? Or is guilt something more sinister, something potentially destructive causing us not to turn from failure to faith? As I said, I do not believe guilt is from God. Instead, guilt comes from sin. God never guilts us; sin does.
God uses all things, even our failings and the guilt feelings which failure spawns. How we react to guilt determines how well we recover from our failings and sin. It’s similar to a person who discovers they have cancer. If the disease’s revelation causes him quickly to seek a doctor’s treatment, he probably can recover. If, however, he delays, gets depressed or preoccupied with his illness, he will probably succumb to it’s devastating effects.
Sin is the cancer of humanity. It seeks to pervert that which God created good – us! Discovering cancer is the role guilt plays in humanity. If we act on our discovery, God can do something to cure the effects of sin. But the longer we wait, the less even God can do to counteract sin’s devastation. This is the function of guilt. It should motivate us to seek God. But guilt has a danger. If we focus on the guilt and not on the God who can deliver us from both our failure and the feelings of guilt it engenders, we get stuck in feelings of hopelessness; the same as what happens to the cancer patient who gets stuck in discovery but never moves to treatment and recovery.
Max Lucado illustrates the destructive force of getting stuck in the guilt of failure. Lucado tells about football great, Noble Dodd. His entire life was filled with textures of success. But one failure, one time, spoiled life from Doss’s perspective. One failure colored the rest of his life.
Noble Doss dropped the ball. One ball. One pass. One mistake. In 1941, he let one fall. And it's haunted him ever since. "I cost us a national championship," he says.
The University of Texas football team was ranked number one in the nation. Hoping for an undefeated season and a berth in the Rose Bowl, they played conference rival Baylor University. With a 7-0 lead in the third quarter, the Longhorn quarterback launched a deep pass to a wide-open Doss.
"The only thing I had between me and the goal," he recalls, "was twenty yards of grass."
The throw was on target. Longhorn fans rose to their feet. The sure-handed Doss spotted the ball and reached out, but it slipped through.
Baylor rallied and tied the score with seconds to play. Texas lost their top ranking and, consequently, their chance at the Rose Bowl.
"I think about that play every day," Doss admits.
Not that he lacks other memories. Happily married for more than six decades. A father. Grandfather. He served in the navy during World War II. He appeared on the cover of Life magazine with his Texas teammates. He intercepted seventeen passes during his collegiate career, a university record. He won two NFL titles with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Texas High School Hall of Fame and the Longhorn Hall of Honor include his name.
Most fans remember the plays Doss made and the passes he caught. Doss remembers the one he missed. Once, upon meeting a new Longhorn head coach, Doss told him about the bobbled ball. It had been fifty years since the game, but he wept as he spoke.
I think Max Lucado’s story about Noble Doss serves to illustrate the destructive potential of guilt, be it deserved guilt or false guilt. But for us, the important question is this: how should we deal with feelings of guilt? Here is what the Bible says in Psalm 32:5:
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
How do we recover from our sin and the guilt feelings produced? We confess our sins to God (which means we say the same thing about them as God says). We stop pretending that our failures are “only human”. We stop acting as though our sins make no real difference in the eternal scheme of things. We stop acting as though we are perfect, without failures; we own up to our failures to others and keep short accounts with God. Why? Because when I tell God what God already is fully cognizant of, that I have once again failed and sinned, then God will forgive me and remove all my guilt (reread Psalm 32:5).
I hope you start a new practice of daily talking to God about your need for God’s forgiveness and restoration so that the New Year will be filled with great journeys and no dead ends.
Happy New Year! I should be taking the day off today, enjoying time with family, watching parades and bowl games. But instead, I’m finishing this post for you, primarily so I won’t experience more feelings of guilt. So why do I feel guilty right now? Am I feeling guilty for ignoring my family? How should I deal with my guilty feelings? Should I do my job and respond to your question or should I put family first? Woe is me; I’m clothed in guilt!
How about you? How long did it take you to break your “New Year’s Resolutions” this time? Overeat over the holidays…yet again? Feeling a little guilty, are you??? …And well you should; you ARE guilty! We all are. We’re guilty of so many failings, who can possibly keep track? Oh, that’s right; God keeps track. Hmmmmm…. Let’s chat about our failures (I’d rather talk about yours than mine). Let’s talk about GUILT.
As President Obama enters his second year in office, he may want to take some advice from Pastor John Ortberg who shared the following story about trying to recover from failure:
A CEO has taken on a new job, and the outgoing CEO says to him, "Sometimes you'll make wrong choices. You will. You'll mess up. When that happens, I have prepared three envelopes for you. I left them in the top drawer of the desk. The first time it happens, open #1. The second time you mess up, open #2. The third time, open #3."
For the first few months, everything goes fine. Then the CEO makes his first mistake, goes to the drawer, opens up envelope #1, and the message reads, "Blame me." So he does: "This is the old CEO's fault. He made these mistakes. I inherited these problems." Everybody says, "Okay." It works out pretty well.
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his second mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #2. This time he reads, "Blame the board." And he does: "It's the board's fault. The board has been a mess. I inherited them. They're the problem." Everybody says, "Okay, that makes sense."
Things go fine for a while, and then he makes his third mistake. So, he goes to the drawer and opens up envelope #3. The message reads: "Prepare three envelopes."
Making wrong choices can lead us to guilt. Guilt can devastate and destroy us. It can paralyze our perception of who we are and what we were created to accomplish. Guilt is destructive. That is one reason I do not believe guilt is from God. Psalm 51:2-3 reads like this in the NLT:
2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunt me day and night.
This Scripture describes the anatomy of human failure. In verse 2, it’s made up of GUILT, which needs washing. And it’s made up of SIN which needs purifying. This Psalm utilizes a device called Hebrew Poetry where two ideas are rhymed. Verse 3 details why we need to be washed and purified from the guilt we feel when we blow it: I’m preoccupied and troubled 24/7 by my rebellion against God (it haunts me day and night), a rebellion I can see a mile away (I recognize my rebellion).
Guilt and sin are often associated together in the Bible. But is guilt a “gift from God”, sent to make us turn from our sin? Or is guilt something more sinister, something potentially destructive causing us not to turn from failure to faith? As I said, I do not believe guilt is from God. Instead, guilt comes from sin. God never guilts us; sin does.
God uses all things, even our failings and the guilt feelings which failure spawns. How we react to guilt determines how well we recover from our failings and sin. It’s similar to a person who discovers they have cancer. If the disease’s revelation causes him quickly to seek a doctor’s treatment, he probably can recover. If, however, he delays, gets depressed or preoccupied with his illness, he will probably succumb to it’s devastating effects.
Sin is the cancer of humanity. It seeks to pervert that which God created good – us! Discovering cancer is the role guilt plays in humanity. If we act on our discovery, God can do something to cure the effects of sin. But the longer we wait, the less even God can do to counteract sin’s devastation. This is the function of guilt. It should motivate us to seek God. But guilt has a danger. If we focus on the guilt and not on the God who can deliver us from both our failure and the feelings of guilt it engenders, we get stuck in feelings of hopelessness; the same as what happens to the cancer patient who gets stuck in discovery but never moves to treatment and recovery.
Max Lucado illustrates the destructive force of getting stuck in the guilt of failure. Lucado tells about football great, Noble Dodd. His entire life was filled with textures of success. But one failure, one time, spoiled life from Doss’s perspective. One failure colored the rest of his life.
Noble Doss dropped the ball. One ball. One pass. One mistake. In 1941, he let one fall. And it's haunted him ever since. "I cost us a national championship," he says.
The University of Texas football team was ranked number one in the nation. Hoping for an undefeated season and a berth in the Rose Bowl, they played conference rival Baylor University. With a 7-0 lead in the third quarter, the Longhorn quarterback launched a deep pass to a wide-open Doss.
"The only thing I had between me and the goal," he recalls, "was twenty yards of grass."
The throw was on target. Longhorn fans rose to their feet. The sure-handed Doss spotted the ball and reached out, but it slipped through.
Baylor rallied and tied the score with seconds to play. Texas lost their top ranking and, consequently, their chance at the Rose Bowl.
"I think about that play every day," Doss admits.
Not that he lacks other memories. Happily married for more than six decades. A father. Grandfather. He served in the navy during World War II. He appeared on the cover of Life magazine with his Texas teammates. He intercepted seventeen passes during his collegiate career, a university record. He won two NFL titles with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Texas High School Hall of Fame and the Longhorn Hall of Honor include his name.
Most fans remember the plays Doss made and the passes he caught. Doss remembers the one he missed. Once, upon meeting a new Longhorn head coach, Doss told him about the bobbled ball. It had been fifty years since the game, but he wept as he spoke.
I think Max Lucado’s story about Noble Doss serves to illustrate the destructive potential of guilt, be it deserved guilt or false guilt. But for us, the important question is this: how should we deal with feelings of guilt? Here is what the Bible says in Psalm 32:5:
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
How do we recover from our sin and the guilt feelings produced? We confess our sins to God (which means we say the same thing about them as God says). We stop pretending that our failures are “only human”. We stop acting as though our sins make no real difference in the eternal scheme of things. We stop acting as though we are perfect, without failures; we own up to our failures to others and keep short accounts with God. Why? Because when I tell God what God already is fully cognizant of, that I have once again failed and sinned, then God will forgive me and remove all my guilt (reread Psalm 32:5).
I hope you start a new practice of daily talking to God about your need for God’s forgiveness and restoration so that the New Year will be filled with great journeys and no dead ends.
RSS Feed