I recently saw this sign while walking through the state capitol. I was with my family on a mini road trip, and the capitol stop was a no-brainer.
When I saw the sign, amidst all the marble and massiveness, it struck me. With the whole separation of church and state idea - seeing the words "Christmas" and "lent" seemed out of place. I had to read it a couple of times for it to register.
After it registered, and even now, the sign makes me sad. I imagine all of the people in our world who are lost and scared, alone and afraid. They seek answers and hope and a level of certainty about their lives. Then they see a sign like this or enter a conversation with this type of thinking, and they are led to believe “forgetting your guilt” is actually a good thing and can make you happier.
Good grief.
Part of the human experience is dealing with the fact that frequently we don’t do the things that deep down we know we should do.
The list of such things is endless from not letting someone merge in front of you on the highway, pretending you don’t see their blinker, to not working out as you know you should or following your diet properly or keeping in line with your budget or blowing past your child who is excited to show you their homework or not telling the full truth because you don’t want someone disappointed, or as the sign points out, not practicing your faith.
Guilt, in my book, is the feeling you can experience when you realize you have not done what you believe you should have done. And the feeling associated with guilt is real.
What should you do with these feelings? And with this “guilt?”
Following my definition, is it good to forget guilt?
And further, is it easier to be happy by forgetting it?
Of course not. And if anyone disagrees, try to find happiness by avoiding doing the things you know you should do.
Being human means experiencing guilt. Being human also means having a natural desire for peace and wholeness and fulfillment which I believe simplified for many is happiness.
These two ideas are not in contradiction with each other, as the sign insinuates. Rather, our guilt and our peace-wholeness-fulfillment-happiness can work together on this human plane. That’s what makes Christianity so beautiful and so wonderfully human.
If we attempt to forget our guilt we are hiding from what it means to be human. And hiding from our human experience never ends well.
When we accept our guilt and own it, we will come to understand our intimate relationship with the cross and how we must depend on Him. This beautiful relationship starts with acceptance of our guilt - not forgetting it. We can embrace our guilt and even appreciate it due to its leading us to Christ.
Forget your guilt? Never. Accept it and own it.
When I saw the sign, amidst all the marble and massiveness, it struck me. With the whole separation of church and state idea - seeing the words "Christmas" and "lent" seemed out of place. I had to read it a couple of times for it to register.
After it registered, and even now, the sign makes me sad. I imagine all of the people in our world who are lost and scared, alone and afraid. They seek answers and hope and a level of certainty about their lives. Then they see a sign like this or enter a conversation with this type of thinking, and they are led to believe “forgetting your guilt” is actually a good thing and can make you happier.
Good grief.
Part of the human experience is dealing with the fact that frequently we don’t do the things that deep down we know we should do.
The list of such things is endless from not letting someone merge in front of you on the highway, pretending you don’t see their blinker, to not working out as you know you should or following your diet properly or keeping in line with your budget or blowing past your child who is excited to show you their homework or not telling the full truth because you don’t want someone disappointed, or as the sign points out, not practicing your faith.
Guilt, in my book, is the feeling you can experience when you realize you have not done what you believe you should have done. And the feeling associated with guilt is real.
What should you do with these feelings? And with this “guilt?”
Following my definition, is it good to forget guilt?
And further, is it easier to be happy by forgetting it?
Of course not. And if anyone disagrees, try to find happiness by avoiding doing the things you know you should do.
Being human means experiencing guilt. Being human also means having a natural desire for peace and wholeness and fulfillment which I believe simplified for many is happiness.
These two ideas are not in contradiction with each other, as the sign insinuates. Rather, our guilt and our peace-wholeness-fulfillment-happiness can work together on this human plane. That’s what makes Christianity so beautiful and so wonderfully human.
If we attempt to forget our guilt we are hiding from what it means to be human. And hiding from our human experience never ends well.
When we accept our guilt and own it, we will come to understand our intimate relationship with the cross and how we must depend on Him. This beautiful relationship starts with acceptance of our guilt - not forgetting it. We can embrace our guilt and even appreciate it due to its leading us to Christ.
Forget your guilt? Never. Accept it and own it.