Guilty
Do being a Christian and often feeling guilty go hand in hand?
I feel guilty about not going to church.
I feel guilty about having nice things when there are poor people living near us.
I feel guilty about thinking about building our own house when there are millions of starving people in the world who live in tin shacks.
I feel guilty about thinking Rafael Nadal is cute.
I feel guilty about wasting last weeks casserole.
I feel guilty about throwing out the freezer bitten meat patties that I bought early last year.
I feel guilty about not buying something when I enter the Trade Aid store.
I feel guilty about being vain if I buy new makeup.
I feel guilty if I don't want to reply to someone who has texted me.
I feel guilty if I forget to respond to an email.
I feel guilty about watching Home and Away on tv.
I feel guilty about not having met our neighbours yet.
I feel guilty about not particularly wanting to meet our neighbours.
I feel guilty about choosing not to have a job, rather than having been laid off.
I feel guilty about sitting at home all day not working.
I feel guilty about not reading my bible often.
I feel guilty when I think about what it would have been like if I had left everything here to go overseas at the start of 2005.
I feel guilty about not wanting to wash the dishes again.
I feel guilty about having a long shower with the bathroom heater going.
As you can see, I feel guilty about lots of things. Some of these things I feel guilt about are irrational - for example, feeling guilty because I didn't buy something in a shop. However, I feel that some of the above things are 'bad' and therefore I should feel guilty about them - being rich when others are poor, thinking rude thoughts about other people, not reading my bible.
Should I, as a Christian, feel guilty about bible reading, praying, church attendance, swearing in my head, thinking a tennis star is fab, not wanting to do household chores, etc?
Should I constantly feel that my efforts are not good enough, that I am constantly letting others down, and I will always fall short of any kind of acceptable standard, both worldly or Godly?
Because I do feel this way, and sometimes it's hard to find a 'normal' person underneath with all this worry going on.
2 Comments:
I'd agree with your distinction between things that make you rationally and irrationally guilty. Obviously you shouldn't be too guilty if you don't respond to an e-mail. But at the same time, I'm thinking we shouldn't ever feel guilty. We should want to change, yes, but guilty? I don't think so. Christianity is about acceptance, forgiveness, and we need to start by applying those things to ourself.
Of course, it's all very well to say that's how it should be, but in the world of feelings, it's not like you can just stop feeling a certain way. But perhaps it might help to stop thinking guilty?
I Don't know.
you could pray to God for strength... not that i'm a Christian and believe any of it but i saw a DVD which said something along the lines of: "God will love you no matter what"
Will you help me be new?
Will you hold me to the promises
That I have made?
Will you let me be new?
Forgive my old self and my old mistakes
When I feel condemned to live my old life
Remind me I've been given a new life in Christ
- Sara Groves
Post a Comment
<< Home