Free and Redeemed

I know for me, when I've done something bad, my heart/mind/whatever decides that I should feel guilty and sick for the rest of my life. (Overly so.) Until I feel like I can't ever be happy again, can't ever feel like a normal human being again. Can't ever just be... me. I have to be this person who's always feeling horrible about what they've done.

And that's just not right.

I'm not saying that if you do something bad, it's not natural to feel bad about it. But instead of staying in your guilt for forever, we should instead change and then be done with it.

"There is no need to talk to Edmund of the past." ~Aslan, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (movie)

When I was younger, the only Pevensie kid I liked was Lucy. (Well... of course, that was before I watched the second movie and found out that Peter was jerk, and most likely before I found out that Susan never went to Narnia in the end... so I kind of liked the two of them a little bit.) But now that I'm older, I realize that I really like the character of Edmund, too. In the movie, you can just see how guilty he sometimes feels. Sometimes I feel like that, too. But Edmund changed, and became Edmund the Just. And come on, you like him in the second movie. (Especially compared to how much of a jerk Peter is.) He's so kind. And he believes in Lucy, even when the rest of them don't.

I'm coming to realize that whatever happens, it's OK. I can be forgiven. God forgives me, every single time. And I don't have to live in guilt; in fear; in anything but pure happiness to be a child of God, someone who is saved and loved beyond measure.

I'm still learning. This is a strange, long, painful process that I've sometimes felt like I wouldn't be able to live through. But God's helping me through it. I'm slowly starting to feel God's love beating down on me. I'm slowing starting to accept that I'm not the same person I once was. I do have a certain sense of sensitivity now when others do something bad. I want to help them get back to where they were before--when they didn't have to feel horrible about themselves. I feel like my heart reaches out to them instead of where I might've judged them. In that way, it's good. But I'm still working on my own stuff, too.

Whatever happens, I don't care what you did, if you repent, you will find forgiveness. If nobody else will forgive you, God and I forgive you. You're a beautiful being created by God. Whoever you are, whatever you've done, if you repent and are saved by God, you are a new creation. The things of the old are gone. Your slate's been wiped. You're no longer black--you're as white as snow. Live in the freedom of a new day.

"Every day is a new day, with no mistakes in it." ~Miss Stacy, Anne of Green Gables (movie)

You're free.

"Shake off these heavy chains, and wipe every stain, because I'm not who I used to be--I am Redeemed." ~Big Daddy Weave, Redeemed (song)

You're redeemed.