Free to Be the Me God Wants Me to Be

PART V: Guilt

Two men were on trial for armed robbery. As the eyewitness took the stand, the prosecutor moved about the courtroom.
“So you say you were at the scene when the robbery took place,” asked the prosecutor.
“Yes,” said the eyewitness.
“And you saw a vehicle leave?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see the occupants?”
“Yes. Two men.”
“And are they in the courtroom now?”
Just then, the two men raised their hands, ending all doubt as to their guilt.

In our feel-good society, we strive to ignore feelings that we have done something wrong. We tend to blame others or use the excuse our poor behavior was a compulsion, something over which we had no control. We dislike guilt because guilt incriminates. Like the famous Edgar Allan Poe story, our own beating heart condemns us.

Guilt is a basic human experience. According to some psychologists, the expression of guilt will vary from person to person. In some cases, guilt will lead to improved behavior. While in others, guilt eats away at the soul, and the smitten can find no peace.

Sometimes we own guilt that we do not deserve. Like Robert Barone, in the television series, Everybody Loves Raymond, we walk into a room armed with a predisposition that we will garner disapproval.

Guilt causes us to automatically brake whenever we encounter a police car, even if we are not purposefully speeding—a Pavlovian reaction to the mere presence of a higher authority. We fear recrimination and are reminded that, after all, we are creatures answerable to the power of the law.

Like fear and anger, guilt can be a useful emotion when tempered by a right relationship with God. For guilt that comes from conviction, that loving slap to our souls sent by the Holy Spirit, is the means by which God woes us. Without a realization of our need, we would not seek forgiveness. With forgiveness comes release.

For those of faith, there is a remedy for guilt. For once we have acknowledged our sinful state, God has promised forgiveness. He doesn't leave us to wallow in our failures, real or imagined.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23 – 24).

Why then, do we insist on carrying our guilt like bricks around our necks? By ignoring God's provision, our continued guilt keeps us hostage. His forgiveness is complete and eternal: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”(Romans 8:1a). This Thanksgiving season, let us claim God’s provision of forgiveness, and leave our guilt where God himself has placed it. “…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).