None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. (Ezekiel 18:22)
I certainly wouldn’t want to be remembered for the worst things I’ve done in my life. I look back and cringe at some of the things I did when I was younger. Disrespectful things I said. Hurtful things I did.
I struggle to understand what drove me to make some of these choices. I would like to chalk it up to simple immaturity. But that doesn’t explain why I still find myself doing things I later regret.
As I sit here, the answer is probably an easy one. I’m human. As Alexander Pope said, “To err is human.” A truer statement has never been made.
Thankfully, as we read in Ezekiel, we do not have to be defined by our transgressions. If we change our ways. If we apologize to those we have hurt. If we seek forgiveness for our sins. If we seek the path of the righteous, we will find God. And God will welcome us into the eternal kingdom.
Jeff Hanston
Links to the appointed readings for today:
Matthew 5:20–26
