Psalm 25

"Pardon my iniquity, which is great." Psalm 25:11

Sometimes I feel guilty about not feeling guilty.

Hear me out. I gave my heart to God when I was young, and I have tried my entire life to walk in the way God would want me to. This means I can't look back on my life and see an abundance of things I would call bad.

I wonder how many other people feel the same way. "I'm not so bad."

I know what you're expecting. Me to come to some revelation that I really am bad, because that's what we're supposed to do as Christians, look down on ourselves, but I don't think that is how God wants us to live. To the contrary, I feel grateful that God has been so good to me and that I've been able to life my life in peace and do the good God has called me to do.

That doesn't mean I feel my "good" life has in any way earned me a ticket to heaven. Far from it. Anything good in my life is as much a gift as salvation.

I am reminded of the verse Isaiah 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."


In case you weren't aware, the filthy rags mentioned are the menstrual rags women would use during their periods. Think used tampon, and that image is not a picture of the bad things we do, but the good things we do. Always tainted with selfishness, always imperfect.

So no, I don't run around feeling guilty all the time. I am a child of God, adopted and loved and forgiven.