7<\/sup> You are a hiding-place for me;<\/p>\nyou preserve me from trouble;<\/p>\n
you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.<\/p>\n
Selah<\/em><\/p>\nGood guilt is emotionally unpleasant.\u00a0 The Psalmist doesn\u2019t describe it \u201chead on,\u201d but the emotions are here in vivid imagery: \u201cmy body wasted away through my groaning all day long\u2026your hand was heavy upon me\u2026my strength was dried up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good guilt isn\u2019t just about what we feel.\u00a0 It is about:<\/p>\n
\n- the misuse of the freedom we have been given,<\/li>\n
- the violation of what we know to be the will of God<\/li>\n
- and about the need for confession and the amendment of life (i.e., repentance)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It has an objective character that isn\u2019t just about the emotions we experience, but about the \u201cfact\u201d of the distance between the lives we live, and God\u2019s will for us.\u00a0 That\u2019s an important corrective in a culture where we are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones.<\/p>\n
The goal of the spiritual life is intimacy with God. And when we live in intimacy with God, we learn that God loves us better than we love ourselves and we are meant for glory.\u00a0 Good guilt alerts us to the fact that our choices have put that intimacy at risk \u2014 or, put another way, the lives we are living lead to a counterfeit glory that will rob us of the genuine article.<\/p>\n
God is not \u201claying a guilt on us.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is not the nature of God to traffic in guilt.<\/p>\n
Guilt isn\u2019t even God\u2019s doing, it\u2019s ours.<\/p>\n
And it isn\u2019t a place where God wants us to live perpetually.<\/p>\n
It is temporary.<\/p>\n
It is meant to alert us to danger.<\/p>\n
And with confession and amendment of life, it gives way to freedom and peace.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones.\u00a0 Guilt is a case in point.\u00a0 But guilt can be a good thing \u2014 if what it does is draw us into deeper communion with God.\u00a0 Psalm 32 provides an excellent sketch of the experience: 1 Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-direction"],"yoast_head":"\n
From the Director\u2019s Chair: Good Guilt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones.\u00a0 Guilt is a case in point.\u00a0 But guilt can be a good thing --- if what it does is draw us\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director\u2019s-chair-good-guilt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Director\u2019s Chair: Good Guilt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones.\u00a0 Guilt is a case in point.\u00a0 But guilt can be a good thing --- if what it does is draw us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director\u2019s-chair-good-guilt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"What God Wants for Your Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-11T12:45:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frederick Schmidt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director%e2%80%99s-chair-good-guilt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director%e2%80%99s-chair-good-guilt\/\",\"name\":\"From the Director\u2019s Chair: Good Guilt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-11T12:45:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-11T12:45:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\"},\"description\":\"We are wired to maximize good feelings and minimize the bad ones.\u00a0 Guilt is a case in point.\u00a0 But guilt can be a good thing --- if what it does is draw us\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director%e2%80%99s-chair-good-guilt\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director%e2%80%99s-chair-good-guilt\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/2010\/10\/from-the-director%e2%80%99s-chair-good-guilt\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the Director\u2019s Chair: Good Guilt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/\",\"name\":\"What God Wants for Your Life\",\"description\":\"Thoughts on the perennial demands and changing shape of Christian spirituality.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/ddfdcfcb384439499b89f4fc91aa3f21\",\"name\":\"Frederick Schmidt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/whatgodwantsforyourlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/683afd03c0a0abb940f8fe5cb3183269?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frederick Schmidt\"},\"description\":\"The Reverend Dr. Frederick W. 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