Mistakes were Made

Whenever we’re tuned to something, we see or hear it everywhere. For example, look around you and take note of everything blue in your immediate environment. Very likely there is quite a bit of it to be seen which you didn’t notice until I suggested you look.  Try to get “Call Me Maybe” out of your mind once I mentioned it to you.

For me, lately it has been the word “mistake.” Apparently it has become the habit of our culture to call things a mistake. I did not do anything wrong, they say, but I made a mistake, an error, an oversight.

This kind of excuse for having done something sinful and evil makes me angry. It is a way of deflecting the seriousness of what has been done. It drives me crazy!

A mistake is a miscalculation somewhat like a division error. I turned right when I meant to turn left is a mistake. I embezzled, I abused, I betrayed, are all examples of something serious and wicked and an offense to holiness and righteousness. It is possible to be deceived and thus make a mistake but a willful choice to do something that we know is wrong is not a mistake.

Also to say “I made a mistake” is not a confession. Those are weasel words that suggest that all I did was make an addition error. A true confession says, “I chose the evil option and I hurt others and I’m very sorry and I accept the consequences.” Now I admit that some of the consequences imposed by others as punishment for our evil are unfair, unforgiving and just plain mean. But that is their problem. We must learn to deal with our problem which is the innate human desire to push aside the depravity of the decisions that we have made. To soften them by using soft words like “mistake.”

I have heard people use that word to explain away vicious evils like murder, pedophilia and brutal beatings of little children. Those are not mistakes! Those are conscious acts of wicked evil! A truly repentant person will say so and mean it and live differently to prove they mean it. I have learned in my own life to stop trying to downplay my willful, sinful choices. I have done evil and it wounds my soul when I do. It also drives me to the throne of God to ask for the power never do that again. Real repentance is lived out over time and is not mere weaselly words.

Romans 721 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

 

2 thoughts on “Mistakes were Made

  1. Well said, Brian. To be on the “side” of holiness will never tolerate one foot in and one foot out. People who believe that they can come to Jesus and hold on to their sins (homosexuals, alcoholics, etc) need a clearer understanding of “repentance”. I do not think our “excuses” will be accepted by the Lord.

  2. My Dad told me years ago that he thought he was wrong once, but then he found out he was mistaken 🙂 There are so many variables that I’ve about given up on being right or wrong, I’d really rather be honest, happy and have others be glad they knew me.

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