Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Clean Slate

After noticing that everyone is now blogging, actually it was Stech and Ian and now Brad, I figured I'd give this another shot. I guess the main reason that I don't post is because I've never had too much interesting to say. I think I'll keep this one simple though, especially since nobody will read this for quite some time.

As you can tell, I erased all of my previous posts. As I was doing that I was thinking about how much that must resemble forgiveness in God's eyes. As hard as I try, I can't have the posts back, I can try to remember them and rewrite some of the stuff that was written, but they basically are gone forever. I'm starting fresh. I don't know if I don't remember that feeling, never felt that feeling, or constantly feel that feeling about forgiveness. I still think that all of my past sin is with me, regardless of God forgiving it, I think I picture God to be a bit like me, always having that trump card on me saying "Sure you did good now, but remember in 1992 when you lied to your mother?" or "Lusting again are we pervert?". It seems elementary, but I'm realizing that God's forgiveness doesn't hinge on my past. God has forgiven me for all of my past sins and will forgive anything I do in the future as long as I ask for it. The sad reality of it is that the only way to get completely away from our sin it to hate it as much as God does (I learned that from Justin Hall).

3 comments:

D-Rok said...

Sup Ed! This post reminds me of an illustration from "The Ragamuffin Gospel" where this lady could talk to God. A priest decided to test her and so he confessed a sin to God and asked the lady to talk to God and find out what he confessed and what God said about it. She went and asked God and then came back to the priest. The priest asked "What sin did I confess?" She said "God said he doesn't remember your sin." I always liked this story. Personally though, I have the same feelings to my sin, but I think it is because I have a hard time forgiving myself and therefore can not understand why God would forgive me. I try and remind myself that shame and guilt are not from God but love, peace, acceptance are.

Darren said...

Glad you're back.

Shame is powerful and can be extremely dangerous or rather useful. If you let it break you down it can destroy your ability to hear God and thus hinder a person's effectiveness. On the other hand, if you forget too much of your past you will eventually think you are equals with God. The past is there to remind us that we will always need God's grace, restoration, etc. You know all this, I know, but it doesn't hurt to think about every now and then.

I love that you mentioned how important it is to not only avoid Sin, but to hate it. Great stuff. I've heard 10 times before, but it is good to be reminded.

scott d said...

God's forgiveness is actually much better than a fresh start to a blog. For a variety of reasons... including the fact that God doesn't cache your sins. Google caches your blog.

Yankees suck.