Tell me when

I like a clean slate, I like forgiveness, I like grace. Grace is unmerited forgiveness. All three take us from sin to forgiveness, none is counted as righteousness. Righteousness is attributed to faith, that is the giving of a clean slate, forgiveness and grace rather than obtaining.

All three require that the heart forgive; but, the mind remember what happened. That is why confession and repentance matter. Think of it backwards, to be forgiven you must admit and repent what you have done. The same is true of those who wish to be forgiven. It is not a paradox, it is simply the difference between receiving and giving, the rules are the same.

Forgiveness is hard, easier to give than accept. I am for true forgiveness, not the baloney of forgetting something. To truly forgive, you must remember. To truly be forgiven, they must remember. That is the tough part of forgiveness, living with the wrongs. We have all done and received them.

I was forgiven by a young man 37 years ago for intentionally slamming a door on his hand and making him lose all of his fingernails. It was incredibly painful, I am sure. I would not want it to happen to me, though I have had worse. It is not about the pain, it is about the wickedness in all of us, including me.

I absolutely refuse to forget the wrongs I have done. I refuse to until I have apologized in person. The person whose hand I damaged, I forgave in person, in front of his mother and him and witnesses. He accepted my apology. I did not accept his acceptance because it was too soon. I could not comprehend him understanding, at 13, that I really meant what I said. His mother knew because I showed up.

Are you willing to face your truth and what you have done. We all suck sometimes. There is a television show that I used to watch about a guy named Earl. He went about trying to make all his mistakes right, what about when you cannot make them right and can only admit, repent and accept? Fixing things is too easy, it is a shortcut.

Now, lets talk about debt. We all, every nation, owes more than it can ever pay. Who does it owe it too? Our children. What if we stopped the madness and eliminated the national debts of all countries, what does it really mean. It means we start from where we are and take care of our own children. It would also mean that we stopped taking out debt, that would cause major deflation.

There is more national debts than can ever be paid. Take the national debt of ever country and divide it by the life expectancy of each of those countries. It is illusionary debt, we cannot pay it. Not one country can pay it in the life expectancy of it's population. It just isn't going to happen.

Lets have a garage sale and eliminate all debt. He must be insane you are saying. NO, I am the only sane one left. Debt is insanity. Whenever I lend money, I never expect to see it again. I do not need that burden. Debt is a promise to have something now in exchange for giving back later; but, we can never promise to give back later, we can die at any time.

The truest form of capitalism does not believe in debt. It is a mutual exchange, not of promises, an exchange. At what point will you fail your promises, we all have one. If the exchange is on the spot, will you steal it back? Just some random thoughts. Be well.