Tuesday, June 23, 2015

What to do with Guilt

The news media reported that a 78-year-old man entered a casino in Reno, Nevada, pulled out a gun and shot and wounded five people. Everyone was in shock, especially as to why an elderly man would do such a violent thing. A spokesman for the casino said that apparently the man was jealous that his wife or girlfriend was at the casino with another man. Interesting way to settle a relationship problem. Fortunately for the authorities, their senior shooter wasn’t difficult to apprehend. According to the news story, they caught him as he tried to shuffle out of the casino with his walker.

We live in a world that is filled with conflict and alienation, a world of fragmented and broken relationships, a world of lost dreams and personal failures. People are hurting for all kinds of reasons and often choose to resolve their pain in ways that instead bring greater pain to themselves and others. It’s so often the case that when we have unresolved guilt and pain inside, we lash out either at ourselves or at others. And the result is a “lose-lose” life.


Is it possible to stop this inherently painful and destructive cycle of alienation and brokenness? Is it possible to live life with a sense of peace in a world of conflict? What can be one with our personal guilt from our own failures? Just live with it? What do we do with those areas of life where we need to either receive forgiveness or give it?

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