Restituted

Restitution – 1 : an act of restoring or a condition of being restored: as a : a restoration of something to its rightful owner b : a making good of or giving an equivalent for some injury
2 : a legal action serving to cause restoration of a previous state

17 " ‘If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’ " (Leviticus 24:17-22)

Photo by: r_gallant

I have written about this, restitution, in the past, but in a different light.  I’m revisiting it because I’ve been thinking a lot about it.  Thinking about it in a Christian light not in the “alcoholic repairing his past” light.

Maybe this happens more than I realize.  Maybe the lot of us do make restitutions for the wrongs we commit against someone.  I just don’t hear us talking about it very often. 

(Note: the definition of restitution that is sticking in my mind is (a) up there in the definition.)

Sure, we talk a lot about making restitution to God for the sins that we make.  Well, we do more than just talk, I hope we are doing it and not just talking about it.  Why do we do it?   Why do we confess our sins and make restitution to God?  That is what confessing is isn’t it?  At least the start of it. 

“Well, Scott, we do it so we won’t go to hell for our sins.  We do it so that our Father will not be mad at and punish us.  We do it because we are commanded to do it.”

Why else?  I’m interested in your thoughts on that, but I’m not wanting to spend a lot of time here on this aspect of restitution. 

So, let’s say you’ve just sinned.  Maybe you’ve just Gossiped about someone.  Maybe you told that joke that you shouldn’t have told.  Maybe your thievery skills came through and you swapped 20 bucks out of your friends car. 

Let’s do something different.  Let’s say you only got angry at someone at work.  I mean, it’s a piddley sin, right?  On your list of sins that you keep up with, it’s way down toward the bottom, right? I’m trying to pull that sin out that you commit toward someone that only you and God are aware of.  Could be anger I guess.  Could be gossip.

Whatever in your mind you decide that sin is, can we agree that we normally take that sin to God and honestly seek forgiveness from him for that sin?  When we do that do we have a tendency to forget the sin at that point?  I mean, we’ve gotten it off our chest and have been forgiven by the one that matters.  I do that some a lot of times.  Especially something that time can “heal.”

As a Christian, is that where it should stop?  Not just as a Christian, but especially as a Christian, is that where it should stop?  Should it stop at God?

No, I’m fairly confident that we all know it shouldn’t stop there.  You probably even practice going to the person that you’ve sinned against and talk to that person and ask him to forgive you.  I do it more than I used to.  Still not real good at it yet.

So, now, why do we do that?

“We are commanded to.  It’s the right thing to do, Scott.”

Yep. 

For some reason I’ve been dissecting that and trying to figure out why God would command us to do that.  More than just because it’s right, or it get’s our hearts right.  Well, I guess that’s part of the purpose that I’m thinking about.  And maybe I’m just way off comparing confession to restitution.

Here is where my mind is.  The results of restitution should be more than just getting paying someone back for something that we’ve done.  I think God wants us to make restitution, for us.  For our well-being. 

Sure, there is a lot to be said for paying back the 20 bucks, or giving your neighbor one of your cows to replace the one that Fido killed.  As humans, that’s just what we should naturally think of doing because it is right.

But, to make restitution to the one we got angry.  To clear up the gossip that we started about someone.  Especially the wrongs we’ve done that the other party absolutely has no clue about. When we make restitution for those things, it makes us feel so much better.  We can truly heal at that point.

Time never heals a wrong.  A wrong “healed” by time will always be in the back of our minds and when we aren’t expecting it, it will raise it’s ugly head and make us once again think about how sorry a person we were.  The feelings I get a year, two years, after time has “healed” a wrong, are the very same feelings with as much impact as when the wrong was actually committed.

I’ll finish up with this.  A lot of the commands that God commands us to do have a much deeper purpose than what we realize.  He really knows how to take care of us, take care of our hearts, and by commands, keep us happier and in a loving relationship with everyone around us.  More importantly, in a loving relationship with Him.

Really looking for some thoughts.  Comment away.

Because of HIM

SC