Stephen Bleile

Oh sure, we’ve all done things that we’re pretty sure are quite bad.  Maybe even terrible.

Past guilt-inspiring activity (if you feel bad enough) should provoke two questions:  how do I avoid this feeling in the future?  How do I undo the thing I did in the past?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has to sleep knowing his soldiers killed innocent protestors.  I have to live with knowing the cheeseburger I stole in Jr. High can never be replaced.

In my experience the guilt / shame that follows a bad decision is rarely equal.  It usually seems 1000x worse! The longer I think on it the worse said action gets until I can think of little else and I am virtually immobilized.

But what if it’s not quite as bad as all of that?  What if your last guilt-inspiring act wasn’t exactly novel?  And by its very unoriginality it loses some of its sting.

Chances are you are not one of the worst people you know.  And if you are you maybe haven’t heard of this lot:

Many cultures have been known to sacrifice their children to the gods.  The Roman version of “who’s got talent” c. 200 AD was comprised of slaves killing each other with spears, tridents, and fish nets. The winner received the prize of being alive while their agents/ masters were plotting to dominate the world (or at very least their neighbors) with unrivaled ambition.  Um, except for the French, the Germans, Microsoft, the Americans, the Belgians, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Iraq, Iran, India, Google, Pakistan, to name a few.

In America a large proportion of polled university students report they would cheat if they would not get caught.  A disturbing number of males report they would rape a female on campus if they would not be caught.

If you’ve done something you’re ashamed of chances are you’ve already experienced the repercussions: fear, shame, isolation and lying are all fruits of doing something wrong. Plus, there are the direct results of whatever problem you’ve created for yourself.

Some address these problems by throwing out the rules. No rules, no problem, no reason for guilt right?  Theory being: Remove guilt by removing standard that created guilt and then address the collateral damage and it’s all good.

What if it’s not as bad as all of that?  What if we needn’t throw out our moral standards (READ: God, 10 Commandments, etc.) What if whatever  you’ve done isn’t as bad as you think it is? What if the very rule book we seek to eliminate has a solution for the problem?

Virtually no one reading this has organized his / her government to attack another country so I think we’re all on relatively good moral standing compared to some.

What if the same moral standards we seek to throw out have solutions for the problem of guilt?  And since our guilt isn’t THAT bad we needn’t throw out ALL of the moral rule book?

Guilt amplifies in our head until we don’t want to deal with whatever causes it.  It may have help.

Sometimes we throw out that thing that points out our sin (READ: Jesus) entirely missing that as much as sin is illuminated it is also sorted out.

I think it’s entirely possible that in the last X years of human history your guilt-inspiring activity has been done before.

Don’t worry, no one thinks we’re as perfect as we pretend to be – especially God- (and I’m sure he’s not surprised or overwhelmed by our misdemeanors.) nor are we as bad as someone/thing may have us believe.

You're not as bad as this guy, are you?