Punishment

It amazes me how many people still hold to the view that God is sitting up in heaven just waiting to punish us when we mess up. As if every mistake we make is revisited and held against us by God as our eternal judgment. And that that no matter how sorry or remorseful we are that God still holds it against us. The fact of the matter is, it’s not really God that punishes us, but the outcomes and ourselves.

Gary Ryan Blair writes that, “Every choice carries a consequence. For better or worse, each choice is the unavoidable consequence of its predecessor. There are not exceptions. If you can accept that a bad choice carries the seed of its own punishment, why not accept the fact that a good choice yields desirable fruit?”

It’s our choices and our mistakes that punish us, not God. I know a lot of people, myself included, that let their past torment them. They are so haunted by what they’ve done that they begin to view themselves in light of the choices they’ve made instead of seeing themselves for who they now are. They have punished and are punishing themselves more than God or anyone else ever could.

Psalm 103:12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Until we truly start to understand this, we will never be able to let go. Once we’ve confessed our sins and sought God’s forgiveness, they’re gone. God will never use them against us. People will try to use our mistakes against us, and we will too. But if we truly believe we’re forgiven, then we need to understand that there’s nothing anyone else can say or do that will change this.

As for people, if someone truly loves us, they will not hold our past against us either. One of the  characteristics of love found in 1 Corinthians 13:5 is that love “keeps no record of wrongs”. If someone loves us then they will forgive us too. They won’t hold our mistakes over our heads or use it for ammunition in an argument.

The hardest part in all of this is to forgive ourselves and let go. To begin viewing ourselves in the present instead of the past. To not let it haunt us to the point that we allow ourselves to be punished by others. To realize that we deserve more and to not settle for anything less.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

Remembering

I’ll never forget where I was on September 11, 2001. Still living in Kokomo, I was home with my oldest daughter who was three at the time. She was watching cartoons on public television and I never would have known that anything was amiss if it weren’t for the phone calls I received from others asking me if I saw what had happened. I tried to carefully catch up without exposing her to the horrific scenes that were being shown on the news. I soon found out a few weeks later that we hadn’t succeeded when she asked her grandparents about the flashing red lights atop the radio towers. When they told her that it was to keep airplanes from running into them she responded with “You mean like when it hit those big buildings and all those people died.”

September 11, 2001 is a date that should always be remembered. I think it should be remembered for a time when we saw both the best and worst that humanity has to offer. We saw the affects of what hatred and bigotry can do. How a few people can cause an immense amount of devastation and harm. How those same few can cast a shadow upon an entire belief system and create even more hatred.

But it should also be remembered for what happens when people put aside their own needs for a while. How people can help pick each other up and help encourage each other. How brave some can be by risking their lives to save others. We saw true heroes who in the heat of the moment gave the greatest gift they could give…their lives.

John 15:13 says “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Nine years ago we saw people give their lives not just for their friends but for complete strangers. There are people who were given a second chance at life, because someone else gave up their lives to save them.

What I wonder is what those people did with their lives? Given a second chance, are they making the most of what they’ve been given? Are they honoring those who died for them by using their lives to make a difference for someone else?

John 3:16 reads “”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” We too have been given a second chance. We’ve been promised something so much more for our lives, but are we making the most of it?

I personally believe there are times that I have squandered what I’ve been given. That I’ve taken God’s gift to me for granted and not made the most of my life. I think that’s been the hardest lesson for me in everything that I’ve gone through.

But no more. I want to make the most of each day. No more whining or complaining. No more wishing for something that isn’t. I want to take what I have, what I’ve been given, and make the most of it. I want to use the time I have left on this earth to its fullest.

No matter who you are or where you are in life, you have something left to give. You’ve been given a gift by God and it’s up to you to receive it. But regardless, you still can make a difference. It doesn’t take much to make a difference to someone else. Little gestures, random acts of kindness, an encouraging word. You can choose to wallow in the circumstances in which you find yourself, or you can make the most of where you are and live life to the fullest.

Alexander Woollcott said, “There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day.”