Daily Scripture: 2 Corinthians 7:8 If I caused you pain by my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did regret it before — for I do see that that letter did distress you, though only for a short time — 9 now I rejoice not because you were pained, but because the pain led you to turn back to God. For you handled the pain in God’s way, so that you were not harmed by us at all. 10 Pain handled in God’s way produces a turning from sin to God which leads to salvation, and there is nothing to regret in that! But pain handled in the world’s way produces only death. 11 For just look at what handling the pain God’s way produced in you! What earnest diligence, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what readiness to put things right! In everything you have proved yourselves blameless in the matter.
Reflection Questions:
After a time of tension, the apostle Paul told Christians in Corinth that “godly sadness,” which led to positive change, was not like “sorrow under the influence of the world,” which left people stuck in guilt feelings that led to death. Christian counselor Bruce Narramore wrote about the difference Paul described: “Guilt feelings are punitive. Constructive sorrow is loving. In psychological guilt we take the initiative to punish ourselves. In constructive sorrow we respond because God has taken the initiative.”
- What positive results did Paul list as coming from “godly sorrow” in verses 9 and 10, results that move beyond feeling guilty or sad? In what ways do those steps lead toward positive outcomes, toward genuine change for the better? When have you seen this process operate in your life or the life of someone close to you?
- “Sorrow under the influence of the world” (today we might call it “psychological guilt”) means punishing ourselves by hanging onto feelings of guilt and shame. How can these feelings keep us from taking positive steps toward healing? When might we need the spiritual discipline of counseling to help us recognize and live beyond that destructive kind of sorrow? In what ways, physical and spiritual, was Paul right in saying that this kind of sorrow brings death?
Today’s Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I’m sorry for the times when I fail you and hurt myself and others. Guide me in making that sorrow a godly sorrow that produces genuine change, not just misery and continued guilt. Amen.
Insights from Wendy Connelly
Wendy Connelly, wife to Mark and mom to Lorelei & Gryffin, is Community Outreach Director at the Leawood campus, a graduate student at Saint Paul School of Theology, Faith Walk columnist for the Kansas City Star, and co-leads the “Live and Let Think” dialogues at Resurrection Downtown.
We live in a society that tilts toward two toxic extremes: blame and shame. Blame rears its ugly head as self-exculpation, unloading guilt on others. Shame takes that guilt, and turns it back on us. Chances are, on this scale of outward and inward condemnation, we all lean toward one extreme, or the other. As a recovering perfectionist, my struggles with shame — can I ever kick up a wicked shame storm!
Society’s complacent, feel-good antidote to both blame and shame wreaks its own havoc on our souls. It tells us “I’m okay, you’re okay. No shame, no blame.” And just like that, we’re off the hook. Who needs a Savior?
But we all need a Savior, and not of this world. A Savior who does not condemn (blame/shame), nor allow us to remain complacent (“I’m okay, you’re okay”), but who convicts. Sets us to rights. Conviction is the only therapeutic and viable alternative to the world’s bad medicine of condemnation and complacency. Godly conviction reveals our sin, but it doesn’t leave us in it. Rather, conviction gently recalibrates us to the Source of life — setting our disorder back into the divine creative order — so that we might live at a higher pitch of existence.
Gloria Dei vivens homo. “The glory of God,” in the words of the ancients, “is a human being [blamelessly, shamelessly] fully alive.”
Download the GPS App
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Wendy Connelly, wife to Mark and mom to Lorelei & Gryffin, is Community Outreach Director at the Leawood campus, a graduate student at Saint Paul School of Theology, Faith Walk columnist for the Kansas City Star, and co-leads the “Live and Let Think” dialogues at Resurrection Downtown.
We live in a society that tilts toward two toxic extremes: blame and shame. Blame rears its ugly head as self-exculpation, unloading guilt on others. Shame takes that guilt, and turns it back on us. Chances are, on this scale of outward and inward condemnation, we all lean toward one extreme, or the other. As a recovering perfectionist, my struggles with shame — can I ever kick up a wicked shame storm!
Society’s complacent, feel-good antidote to both blame and shame wreaks its own havoc on our souls. It tells us “I’m okay, you’re okay. No shame, no blame.” And just like that, we’re off the hook. Who needs a Savior?
But we all need a Savior, and not of this world. A Savior who does not condemn (blame/shame), nor allow us to remain complacent (“I’m okay, you’re okay”), but who convicts. Sets us to rights. Conviction is the only therapeutic and viable alternative to the world’s bad medicine of condemnation and complacency. Godly conviction reveals our sin, but it doesn’t leave us in it. Rather, conviction gently recalibrates us to the Source of life — setting our disorder back into the divine creative order — so that we might live at a higher pitch of existence.
Gloria Dei vivens homo. “The glory of God,” in the words of the ancients, “is a human being [blamelessly, shamelessly] fully alive.”
Download the GPS AppThe United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
913.897.0120
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