Maybe guilt can work for good.
Pain from a broken leg keeps us from doing more damage to the injury. So we hobble to ER, wait for hours, and then get it casted, which enables healing. We don’t all break our legs, but we do sin. Perhaps, just wondering, but does guilt serve a similar role spiritually for those times? Can it be pain that leads to spiritual healing?
I slip again
no, I sin
I need at least that much integrity
And when subtle pangs
of guilt arrive
I firmly close the door against them
And I live guilt free
continuing the sin
Then in worship
I crack open
my heart to you
in praise of your holiness
And that crack from praise
shatters the door holding back the guilt
and it floods in
bringing shame
regret
grief
and then relief
How can a holy God
accept one such as I?
Grace
Oue culture pretty much ignores sin, and teaches that guilt destroys and diminishes us, that it brings shame into our lives. They tell us that we’re innately good, that we’re special, and encourage us to not allow anyone to tell us different. No judgment.
Does that match reality? Are we basically or fully good or fully bad? Let me suggest we fit into a continuum, “There’s always some bad in the best of us, and some good in the worst of us.” I slip a lot, and the longer I walk with Jesus, the more I realize those slips are truly sins—where I take God’s place in determining how I want to live. They bring damage.
That means guilt can be my friend when following Jesus. It lets me know I’ve “slipped,” and need to take corrective action. I’ve found that sin and serving the Savior are paradoxical. Both true, but opposite. I can’t fully do both. I do sin. I do follow Jesus. They pull me in opposite directions. I just read an interesting quote—“Is an act good because God says so, or because it reflects God’s essence?” I lean to the latter. God is pure, and if want to follow him, then we need to move deeper into his position. Guilt is like a highway bump just off the side of the lane that tells us we’ve drifted outside the safe lane.
So I now rejoice in that pang of guilt—it tells me of a change I need, that I perhaps haven’t been aware of before. And then, and only then, does the healing begin. Grief gives way to relief.
Kick Starting the Application
Has guilt been destructive to you? Has it been constructive? Do you agree with the concept that guilt is a marvelous gift from God that allows us to identify new areas that we can grow in? How has that worked in your life? Try to identify one area you’ve been pushing back the guilt and need to let it go, and deal with that this week.