OVERCOMING GUILT
Andrew was seven when, one winter morning he left the house to catch the school bus without his coat. His mother called after him, but he ignored her. Finally, his father began calling, but Andrew could see the school bus coming up the road and didn’t want to miss it. He turned and watched from the school bus stop as his father raced toward him with Andrew’s coat in his hands. Moments later, Andrew’s dad crossed an icy patch on the sidewalk; his feet flew out from underneath him, and he hit the ground hard, his head making a loud cracking noise as it hit the sidewalk. Due to complication from the wound sustained from the fall, he died eleven days later.
After the father’s death, Andrew, a formerly bright and cheerful kid, became dull and morose. A lot of other negative changes happened to Andrew which brought grieve to the heart of the mother. She knew her son was suffering deeply, but she couldn’t understand why. It came as a total shock to her when
she discovered, after attending counselling with her son, that he had been consumed with guilt for most of his life because he blamed himself for his father’s death.
Have you also been consumed with guilt over something that happened to you in the past? It could be guilt from sin committed; guilt from the choice(s) you have made in the past and you are living with the negative consequence right now. Guilt could come from feeling responsible or regretful for a perceived offence, real or imaginary. But the good news is that, there is a way out.
Don’t suppress guilt. Identify what brought it into your life and seek for a way out. It may be that you need to open up on an offence committed or make right some wrongs that you have done. Do something about it and never manage to live with it. It doesn’t matter if the guilt was caused long ago, notwithstanding “…God requireth that which is past.” Ecclesiastes 3:15
