Though You Don’t Believe That It’s True, I Never Meant Any Harm to You

A great difficulty in life is dealing with the unintended consequences of our deeds.  Hindsight is 20/20 (as they say), and even the most wise cannot see all ends.  We simply don’t intend for things to turn out the way they sometimes do.  Our misdeeds bring more trouble than we foresaw, but even a good deed can be punished.  How do you deal with that?  It’s a helpless feeling to watch things go up in flames from an errant spark.  We reap what we sow, but weeds grow quicker, better and with less cultivating than good plants.  Sometimes, the good crops that we sow don’t come up at all.

It’s often a futile and frustrating chore to try and explain that “what I said was not what I meant.” The deed cannot be denied though the effects were unintended.  And hurtful misunderstandings will carry into eternity because they’ll not all be resolved here.  This is a great testimony to the fallenness of man and Satan’s temporal victory through it.  He’ll not win the ultimate war with God, but he has killed or maimed many of God’s servants.  And he’s glad when we do his work for him.  Our sinful nature makes us prone to offending others, and we may even do so unintentionally.  This same nature make the offended unforgiving. 

Life proves to us that the Bible really is true when it says our good deeds are like dirty rags.  Paul said he wanted to do well but fell short of his goals in thoughts and actions.  It would be great if we never were an affront to others, but Jesus said that it is impossible for us not to be offensive.  In simple terms, we are (because of the sinful nature) an offense.  We are fallen- every one of us.  We come up short even when we give our best effort, sin against God and hurt others without even trying.  Call it the human condition, the same boat, whatever, we’re all in it.  If we sink the boat, we’ll all go down together.

Since “what goes around comes around,” there’ll be a time when you are in the unenviable position of cleaning up a mess you didn’t intend to create.  It’s there but not purposefully.  When you’re holding the bag, you’ll appreciate grace from your fellows.  I, for one, don’t think that’s unreasonable.  We certainly ought to be willing to forgive other people for the things that we do ourselves.  That’s not rationalization- that’s reality. And it’s in the Bible.  We’ll all do better when we treat others like we want to be treated.  When you are on the receiving end of grace, it is, well, amazing.

Sterl

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