We all come up short.
We let the people we care about down, and it’s tough for us to let it go.
We replay the experiences and theorize about where and how we might have alternatively acted, and lose sleep thinking about how we will make it up to them. To ensure we don’t forget, we beat ourselves up pretty well throughout the process.
And in doing so we limit ourselves.
We cut down the opportunities we might have taken advantage of by electing to remain in our guilt and shame. By dwelling on the past, we miss chances to influence the present and even the future. Sure, we absolutely need to apologize, ask for forgiveness, and do our best to make things right, but we can’t allow our failures to consume and stymie us.
Furthermore, God is not in the business of us dwelling on our past mistakes. We all sin, and will continue to. He recognized this and sent a way that we might be redeemed and restored to relationship with Him. However, in staying in our self-pity we are in a way rejecting the forgiveness and restoration we have been gifted. Consider how you might feel if you gave someone a costly gift and it sat on the shelf gathering dust.
“They’ll get to know me by being kindy forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped. By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.”
This ‘kind forgiveness’ we have been offered is something we should take advantage of and enjoy. It was purchased at a high price and freely given to us. Let us then embrace, not reject, the goodness that has been so graciously provided.
We have come up short, and we certainly will again. However, we are also forgiven and redeemed. Maybe it is time to start living like that and let go of the shame we heap upon ourselves. It’s time to accept the gift we know we don’t deserve.