Remorse Is What Turns Evil Into Good
We are all human and do bad things. We feel bad for these bad things we did. Remorse is a healthy response, but self-condemnation is not. Remorse is defined as “deep regret or guilt for a wrong committed,” while self-condemnation is defined as “the act or an instance of condemning one’s own character or actions.” For the bad things I’ve done in my life, I go back and forth between the two, and I am also writing this article to see how to waver more so on the side of remorse than self-condemnation.
Self-condemnation, to me, is the feeling that you’re not good enough, that you should be something you currently are not. In a spiritual context, for those that are religious, self-condemnation is the act of putting yourself in the position of God. Why? According to Christine Hoover, “the Holy Spirit convicts — we don’t convict ourselves.” When we convict ourselves, it makes us center on ourselves. “I’m not good enough,” “I need to try harder and be better at this,” or “my past mistakes define me” are examples of this kind of self-conviction. We are not meant to go to the cross. Jesus did. It is almost a point of arrogance and pride to wallow extensively in our shame and try to pay Christ’s shame ourselves.
But enough of theology — another point against self-condemnation is the fact that we rarely tell other people they should condemn themselves. So why should…
