No Condemnation, No Regrets
by Nancy Bowers, RScP
Sometimes something happens and I wish I could turn back the hands of time – stuff the words back into my mouth; change my reaction. But I can’t. I have only now and in this now, all I can do is choose love. All I can do is learn from my mistakes. So, I surrender my heart to God. I allow His Love to return me to my innocence. I stand in the place of no regrets where condemnation cannot survive. I pray. This is my prayer.
God makes no mistakes. God has no regrets. God is only Love and only Love is real. This is God’s Life, this place of connection, this heartbeat of the recognition of innocence. A Course in Miracles says, “God does not forgive because He has never condemned.” But we need forgiveness because we forget who we are. We forget that mistakes are transient – a way to learn and so in those moments when we forgot to choose Love, we appear to be guilty.
But this is God’s Life, where Love rules and Peace thrives and there is no condemnation. Here, Purity kisses everything. Here, Innocence comes in to teach Love and we are once again washed clean. God loves me so deeply, His message to me is forever Love. Beyond ideas of right and wrong, He offers me forgiveness – not because He condemned me, but because I condemned myself. God carries me back to the land of no regrets, where once I give up defending myself, I see where I can do better. I learn. I choose love. I forgive myself and I forgive everyone else.
So in this moment, this here and now, I allow myself to be returned to the land of no regrets. I let go of condemnation. I let go of thinking I am guilty or that anyone else is guilty. I embrace the Goodness of the Divine, where innocence allows compassion to rule my heart. I release any tendency to think I must steel myself against anything. I turn the other cheek. I allow God to define me and return me to my innocence. I return to the Love where I know the innocence of those who have condemned me. I stand in the Strength of the Lord and remember that the opinions of others do not define me; they only illuminate the places in them that are still in need of healing. I stand in defenselessness where God’s Strength protects me and no attack is necessary.
Let us heal together. Let us let go of ideas of guilt and condemnation and allow the Peace of God to return us to Joy. Let us stand in defenselessness, where no justification for the past is needed. Beyond ideas of good and bad, right and wrong there lies the place where all we care about is nurturing the love that was always there. Let us choose that. Let us allow our “sins” to be washed clean.
I give thanks for no regrets. I give thanks for the return of innocence where condemnation cannot live, where guilt is no longer held up like the badge of separation it purports to be. I give thanks that God does not forgive because He has never forgotten who his children really are. I give thanks that that remembrance is always available and mine for the claiming. I am grateful that I know how to return to the Heart of God.
Then I let go. I let go of regrets. I let go of all the stories that want to cement my guilt. I let go of stories that would color anyone else as guilty. I let go of condemnation. I allow God’s Truth to be my truth and in that allowing, I return home to innocence. And so it is. Amen. Thank you, God. Amen.