On Guilt and Cluelessness

In my previous blog entry, I said that guilt functions as a red flag for the clueless.  I was thinking that someone might think that "the clueless" was referring to someone other than myself.  No such luck. I am often clueless and blundering into sin here and there, and it is only the crude prod of guilt that awakens me to my folly.  However, having seen my drift away from attention to God in my heart (through the guilt aroused by the sinful thought or action I have fallen into), I leave guilt behind.  It’s done its work.  

Salvation is found (A) in fleeing in my thoughts and actions from the sin-enticing context, and (B) in returning my attention to God in my heart.  Herein lies all of spiritual warfare, at least insofar as I have experienced it.  

I joke sometimes that I am spiritually dyslexic.  As a metaphor, it works for me.  I often get lost and confused and find myself in thought or action where I don’t want to be.  I find the loud shouts of my old man (to use St. Paul’s metaphor) have taken taken my attention away from the silent, peaceful presence of the new man.  It is my sickness.  I do not chide myself too much about it.  Like finding yet another misspelled word in a text I have reread twenty times, I calmly fix it (well, maybe with a tinge of frustration, but not too much--it doesn’t help).