Manipal Monk: A clean slate

If you’re thinking today that the thing you did, that you’re so ashamed about, is so terrible that there is now way out, I want you to think again! If you are weighed down by guilt, and believing that your life can never change, change that belief please!

“God isn’t alarmed when we hit rock bottom. He made the rock”. You know how we say “You’re not the first and you’re not the last”, as an offering of comfort when someone finds himself in an unwanted situation? I used to think that it was a sort of cop-out. I would argue that if someone else did it, it is no excuse for me to do it too! But I had to be awakened to my humanness. “Things do not just happen, they happen just”.

Some of my personal experiences were to show me that I was not so perfect as I thought I was! Now I have to have a hearty laugh at myself, when I look back and realise just how presumptuous I was. Me, mistake proof? Ha!

I used to deal with shame and guilt this way: I would make excuses. I could also do the denial dance real good. Push the thing so very far away that I didn’t have to deal with it at all. Or simply pass the buck. So-and-so made me do it. Well, So-and-so never put a gun to my head and forced me to do anything. So if So-and-so made me do it, how come I’m the one feeling the shame and guilt, and having to face the music alone?

So to clean up the mess, we have to first admit where we were wrong. Take full responsibility for our contribution to whatever it is we’re facing. Own up, “fess up” to ourselves. Admit the truth!
When we dress it up, skirt around the issue, it does not remove the mess. The thing will come back to haunt you if you do not address it truthfully. The sooner the better. Big or little thing. Life-threatening or not. Wipe the shame and guilt away with truth!
Be blessed.

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