The issue that I'm wondering about is whether we struggle with the need to redeem ourselves. In my case, my entire outlook on life and other people has changed because my eyes were opened to the consequences of my actions. So, I decided to carry the full weight of my actions and to carry that cross for the rest of my life. There was fruit that came from that time in my life. It taught me patience, kindness, understanding, perseverance, gentleness, and utter joy that Christ died for me. However, even after I fully accepted Christ, I told God that this was my burden and my punishment. It took me 5 years to learn this, but I realized that I alone cannot carry this burden. In fact, I was never carrying this burden alone. Christ was next to me the whole time; I just didn't look his way. Christ is probably the only reason why fruit of the Spirit even came out of those 5 years.
As Asian men, we often feel the need to be successful at everything and hate the idea of failure. When we do fail, we often want to do nothing more than to make up for that failure. We want to redeem ourselves. Although we should learn from our mistakes and rise from our failures as better men, we should remember that we cannot and will never be able to redeem ourselves. Only God can do that and he already has.
thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI think finding joy that Christ is next to you gives us strength to carry on. Paul calls us to carry our crosses and it will bring us pain and suffering, but we will carry on and press on
At the same time, there are certain burdens we need to carry and there are certain burdens we dont need carry. i hope you can differntiate between the two and learn to let go of what needs to be let go of.
ive done a lot of stupid things in high school. some unforgiveable things, but you know what helped me let go of those things? i asked the people i wronged for forgiveness. And when they did, i could let go. dont carry these burdens alone with Christ. Christ will always have your back regardless of what happens. The question is, do you have other people behind your back? God can forgive you, but can you man up to ask the people you have wronged to provide you forgivness as well?
God will redeem us regardless. Hallelujah for that. But we also need to know our faults and confess our sins to one another. And maybe you might see that you can see God's ultimate forgiveness through the people he loves as well.
i say all this in firm hope that you will not carry burdens you dont need to carry.
It sounds ultra manly to say you've carried a burden for 5 years but its even more manly to have asked forgiveness then and there. saves a lot of stress as well.
They say the difference between confession and repentance is that repentance does something about the sin you have done. you take a stand to go against it and correct yourself. And this leads to perosnal redepmtion as well, i think. As you see your faults and admit them to your God and your brothers you know that there will be change in you, because now you have a multitiude of witnesses to keep you accountable.
haha, you've pretty much summed up the lesson i've learned this year. i didn't mean it to sounds manly to say i've carried this burden for 5 years. honestly, while writing this down, i thought it was incredibly foolish and wish i simply laid down my burden sooner since i know that my burden prevented me from being what God called me to be. My arrogance for thinking I had to carry this burden to prove myself simply held me back.
ReplyDeleteI think my burden slowly lessened as I slowly gave it up. As flawed beings, we will probably always have a hard time giving ourselves completely to God. I had a hard time believing I could fully let go and I kept my past as a reminder to myself never to do such a thing again. I realize my mistake and challenge everyone else to do the same: to look at yourself and see if you have a something that is holding you back; fear, shame, doubt, whatever it may be, I ask each and every one of you to talk about it. I know I haven't made myself completely available to you guys as a brother, but that ends now. Feel free to ask me about anything or talk to me about anything. As the chapter leaders said, we, as leaders, are called to be servants and shepards, not figures of authority.