calloused way of livin

Sunday March 10^th, Psalm 32: Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.  To someone who is burdened down with guilt, sometimes even without being aware of it, the gift of forgiveness is the gift of life itself.  To someone who is not burdened down with guilt, the gift of forgiveness can be that which motivates you to look more critically at your life, seek forgiveness and keep moving forward.  To someone who is not burdened down with guilt and doesn't feel they particularly need forgiveness, forgiveness is essential, especially for their lack of taking life seriously enough to even live it fully or look critically deep inside and face all the separates you from God. I feel more are burdened down today by not being burdened down with guilt than are burdened down by being burdened down with guilt.  Perhaps the rebellion to the Lord we must first confess is our lack of being burdened by guilt or even concerned to consider it rebellion. What we need is forgiveness for our calloused way of living the unexamined life.  For the ills in our lives and the ills in this world it is all too easy to blame someone else and never take the responsibility for what we have done or perhaps more importantly, left undone.  What we lose in the process is the joy that comes with knowing our guilt is gone, forgiveness is our gift, the relationships with God and the neighbor is once again made whole and hope is restored.