Dear Fellow Children of God,
Do you ever feel like everything that goes wrong in your
life is your fault? “What did I do this
time?” This feeling of guilt is not
uncommon, whether people know about God or not.
I confess to feeling some guilt recently. It’s a long story, but I’ll tell it. On March 21 I had my oil changed, and so I
had my studded tires taken off my car and my summer tires put on at that time
to avoid the rush. You may remember the
big snow on March 23 for Palm Sunday. I
mentioned that in my Kiwanis meeting on March 26, to which someone said,
jokingly, “What do you expect from a Chechako (new person to Alaska)?” I pointed out I’ve been in Alaska over 20
years. So I asked, “How long does it take
till you’re not considered Chechako?” I was told, “Until you get smart.” Oh, Oh.
Please remember all this was said in fun, but I confess there was still
a shadow of guilt in the background.
Then, the day after Easter I got some long needed new
tires for my wife’s car. I should have
learned from previous experience, I guess.
You know the large snow storm that hit us on April 6, 7, 8, and 9. There are still remains of that storm in
piles along the roads.
Then, on April 22 I bought a new lawn mower. I was replacing a mower I bought in
1999. You guessed it. We had snow on Tuesday, April 23. I have no answer for the reason for the snowfall
on Saturday, May 4. But Gerry Zellar
piped up and said it was his fault. He’d
been to Minnnesota for his dad’s 90th birthday and experienced
multiple late snow storms in his short visit there. As soon as he arrived home we were blessed with snow on Saturday. He was feeling shadowy unnecessary guilt,
even if he said those words jokingly.
My wife has another theory. My lawn mower purchase was not necessarily
smooth, so I have kept working on that purchase into May. I took my grandson and granddaughter, Jake
and Emma, fishing last Monday, May 6.
Usually, the ice is safe into the third week of April, but after that
the ice gets rotten and its best not to risk the safety of the ice. But, on Monday, May 6, I had to use the
extension on my power auger to drill through 45” of solid ice at Seventeen Mile
Lake near Sutton!!! Kathy says, “We’re
going to have the coldest summer on record because you bought a new
lawnmower.”
Guilt is a real emotion.
There is reason for our guilt. We
have all strayed from God’s loving direction, and our sinful actions do have
consequences. Sometimes those
consequences are immediately obvious.
And sometimes the consequences of sin are still there, but not as
obvious.
But, guilt can be twisted. Obviously my tire changing and lawn mower
buying did not affect the weather (right?).
When we know our failings we can sometimes over-imagine the results of
our sin, sort of like my stories about the snow. Our enemy can use this guilt. The name “devil” means slanderer or
accuser. God’s enemy can take the
knowledge of our sin and our guilt. He
can accuse us and lie to us that God cannot love us because of our sin. Our guilt can turn us away from God, contrary
to God’s desire.
But, there is another, healthy side to guilt. In today’s world that is so full of selfish
pride and arrogance, our guilt can be a balance to worldly arrogance and the
knowledge of our sin can keep us humble.
In fact, knowing our sin can point us toward God as Savior, instead of
pointing us away from God as judge. In 2
Corinthians 7:10, God inspired Paul to write, “10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no
regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
I know I am a sinner and my sin has consequences. But, I know I have a Savior. Jesus died to pay for my sin, and God
forgives me and saves me as I confess my sin and turn to Jesus as my
Savior.
I guess if you want to blame me for the late Spring, I
have broad shoulders. When we have a
Savior we can admit our failings and turn to God’s forgiving and loving
direction.
A Child of God, Knowing my Sin and Knowing God’s
forgiveness,
Pastor Jonathan
P.S. I thought of
writing about Mothers’ Day, but I will be preaching on that tomorrow.
P.P.S. Here are
some pictures from our fishing outing. https://plus.google.com/photos/114993745799525883148/albums/5876821244194544593?banner=pwa
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ABOUT ‘THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR’ - I am
sending these e-mail messages, hopefully weekly, to all St. John members and
friends whose e-mails I have. (I am always adding new names of friends
and members – in case you are just receiving this e-mail for the first
time.) However, if you don’t want to receive this e-mail, please let me
know, and I’ll gladly leave your name off my list for this message. . . Or, if
you know someone who would like to receive one of these e-mails, please send me
their e-mail address.
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