Accepting the consequences is a repentant heart saying ‘Yes’ to what has been done, praying for mercy, and possibly discovering grace.
A few years ago I was caught speeding. I was going too fast. The police officer pulled me over and asked if I knew what speed I was traveling. I didn’t. He told me and then wrote out a ticket with a fine. I duly paid the fine.
There was a consequence – embarrassment and a hit to my wallet. There was justice, no mercy, and certainly no grace.
I accepted the consequence of my actions. However, thinking back now, I’m glad that the consequence was only a fine and not something much worse, such as hitting a pedestrian because of my excessive speed.
When you’ve been caught doing something wrong, what is your very first reaction? You may run, hide, blame someone else, or get angry, even at God. Anything to avoid an awareness that the consequences are entirely on your shoulders.
My ancestors have always done this. My parents tried to hide their crime under some figs leaves. My first father blamed my first mother, and my first mother blamed Satan. Satan laughed with glee. We are all stuck in the same curve.
You did it. Your choices got you where you are today, but your choices will also lead you out.
Yes, I know we live lives where so many other people’s choices affect us. But you have to take responsibility for that which is in your control.
I was the one that pushed the accelerator down too much—no one else.
Accepting consequences
So often, we only come to our senses, a place of earth-shattering, fig-wearing awareness, when our senses are triggered. Sight, sound, taste, smell, touch. The bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
We come hungry and naked to a field of pigs.
The prodigal son came to rock bottom when he had nothing to eat. He wanted to eat the pods (probably Carob pods) that he was feeding the pig, but he wasn’t allowed to eat them.
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! Luke 15:14-17
It wasn’t just the desire to eat pig food; it was that he wasn’t even allowed to eat the food of pigs.
The needs of the pigs were more important than his own.
They had value. He didn’t.
Acceptance of the consequences hit him hard. Pigs were preferred to him.
Often there is an acceptance of consequences only when we have run out of resources. There are no more fig leaves from which to stitch together some protection over our nakedness.
You give up trying to shift the blame somewhere else.
Acceptance is a tough road because it strips you of all you have used to protect yourself. All those things like your money, intelligence, wit, humor, beauty, charm, appearance, manipulations, deceptions, etc.
Name your sin management fig leaves here ____.
You are stripped bare ready for death by stones.
You are the powerless woman caught in adultery. John 8:1-11
Artist: David Hayward
The crucified cries out
When you’ve lost everything, you’ve got nothing to lose, so you cry out in prayerful desperation. You go home empty-handed. You cry out to Christ for a little remembrance.
Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!”
But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:32, 39-43
There were three crucified. One wholly innocent and blameless. The other two? Guilty as charged.
One of them wanted a miracle – to avoid the consequences of what he had done.
The other wanted a future with a blameless King. He accepted the consequences, a bloody cross, but held out for a future.
Acceptance means simply that. To accept. To take it on, no excuses, no blame-shifting, no hiding.
A pinhole of light
I love to see progressions—one thing leading on to another and then on to another.
One of the most profound I have come across is the progression from justice to mercy to grace.
An adulteress waits for the stones of justice but discovers salvation.
A prodigal son receives justice, prays for mercy, and discovers grace.
The thief on the cross receives justice, hopes for a merciful remembrance in Jesus’ kingdom, and is promised a garden walk with Jesus.
He could see Jesus was innocent. Above Christ’s head were the crimes written out. ‘King of the Jews.’
He wanted to be remembered in this new kingdom (basileia). A kingdom has power structures and hierarchy. A plea for a little mercy, to be remembered and not forgotten. Not to be left outside of this new city’s walls.
Jesus promises something better – that he will be with him in paradise (paradeisos). A garden, a park, an enclosure, and an embracing.
A pinhole of light exists even in our darkest crucifying moments that we can hope through.
That’s the progression we are offered. Justice, mercy, grace.
Do we offer that to others? Do we give to others what we so desperately need ourselves?
Accepting the consequences is a repentant heart saying ‘Yes’ to what has been done, praying for mercy, and possibly discovering grace.
Their response is their responsibility.
When you’re at the bottom, you are totally at the mercy of others. Others’ response to you is their choice. You can’t demand them to be kind, thoughtful, or show mercy. They have free will, and it’s over to them as to how they treat you.
They may not even allow you to eat pig food. Stones may well be picked up, ready to be thrown. The crucifixion nail may be hammered in just a little further. Their response is their responsibility, but there is one watching all. One that knows the sins of all.
He speaks a few words.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”
“No one, Master.”
“Neither do I,” said Jesus. John 8:6-11
Justice. Mercy. Grace
We accept the consequences, but we can also accept the consequences of one who has taken upon himself the whole weight of the world’s wrongdoing. His offer to us is mercy and grace.
Can you give yourself some mercy? What about some grace?
Do this for others too. Mercy them. Grace them.
Quotes to consider
- Your future is not determined by your past or your parentage, but by your own choices-the choices you make today and tomorrow. Now is the key to tomorrow, not yesterday. David Riddell
- Accepting responsibility for your own attitudes and choices is the first step to a healed life. (Christians call this ‘repentance’) David Riddell
- [God] invites us, in short, to find him. And he lets us know that in the process of finding him, we’ll find ourselves. Larry Crabb
- God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference. Reinhold Niebuhr - Acceptance doesn’t mean complacency or giving up. We can accept something while at the same time trying to make it better. Rick Hanson
- Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences. Robert Louis Stevenson
- The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior. M. Scott Peck
- Changing behaviour by use of will-power alone will soon result in playing the same tune, but in a different key. The problems just move sideways. David Riddell
Questions to answer
- Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to accept the consequences?
- What’s your favorite sin management, avoidance strategy?
- Justice to mercy to grace. How hard is it to receive mercy and grace when you know all you deserve is justice?
Further reading
Barry Pearman
Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash
