A little wisdom in dark times

Just read a post from one of my friends about a couple who drove 1700 miles to pick up all the hand sanitizer available in every store he came across and now cannot sell it as he thought he could online! I am sorry, but I have to say that this idea of theirs was awfully stupid! I know they think people will become desperate and want this stuff, but honestly this is just one of the selfish and foolish things I have heard repeated lately with all this hype about Coronovirus. There have been lots of times when I hear people almost bragging about their escapades, but to brag about hoarding to deny others a chance to remain well hydrated, fed, or sanitized is just not something to brag about. Most of these 'hoarders' appear to have a sense of pride with acknowledging their folly! I am not one to "parade" my folly in public, but I went into a store for the first time in a long time and was amazed at how many people were acting like doomsday was coming. What warmed my heart the most was the post of a mother and child, curbside on a busy intersection, handing out one roll of toilet paper or paper towel to anyone who stopped and was in need. Now, that is something to brag about, but she won't!

Fools make fun of guilt, but the godly acknowledge it and seek reconciliation. (Proverbs 14:9 NLT)

What it is we do with our "guilt" when our escapades have been less than honorable reveals a lot about us. The fool makes fun of the guilt they feel. Try as we might, we cannot rid ourselves of the sense of guilt with simply laughing it away or making light of it. If we dismiss our guilt long enough, we become almost "immune" to the sense of guilt we feel about a certain behavior. We begin to justify it and form an "opinion" of it being okay - if not for others, at least for ourselves. In some circles, this is similar to something referred to as "situation ethics". Today's "situation ethics" is actually promoting this hoarding mentality! In the simplest sense, situation ethics holds the belief that the end justifies the means. In fact, with this type of interpretation of life, we find it easy to set aside rules and regulations whenever we feel the "greater good" will be served by our actions. 

Jesus always began with "love God" and then he taught to love "your neighbor" as yourself. You cannot ever "love God" if you throw out the absolutes he proclaims - things like don't cheat, don't covet, don't have any other god before me, and give and it will be given to you. These are absolutes in God's kingdom. So, Jesus was teaching we need to embrace the absolutes of God's kingdom and this will result in us being able to love our neighbor. Fools make fun of guilt - but the godly acknowledge it. It is one thing to acknowledge something - it is another to do something with the knowledge we have! The godly doesn't stop with an admission of guilt - they go on to the place of obeying one of God's absolutes - confession! Scripture teaches us to bring our sins to Christ and there we will find forgiveness. It is not an exercise of excusing our sin - it is an erasure of the stain of the sin and the ability to walk away from the pull to do the sin again.

So, what we do with our guilt determines the end of our guilt. We can flaunt it openly, proclaiming the end justified the means. Or...if we are wise....we can confess it, seeking forgiveness and restoration at the foot of the cross. The first method of dealing with our guilt will only "numb" us to the experience of guilt - it never removes it. The latter not only removes it, it gives us the ability to walk away from the very action which produced the guilt in the first place. The fool chooses to continue the pursuit of the action which produces the guilt - the wise choose to turn away from it, seeing no justification in their sin. It is truly a dangerous thing to "pick up" a false set of beliefs - those which veer from the truth clearly outlined in scripture. We can "interpret" scripture and reflect upon it with all kinds of "opinion". The danger is us forming a set of beliefs which "fit our actions" instead of us allowing God to "fit our actions" to his Word! Lest I meddle further...I will leave you with these thoughts to ponder. Just sayin!