How do you take it back?

I was recently made aware of some hurtful actions that were attributed to me. I’m usually fairly self-aware, but though I knew that the necessary actions I was taking were not at all pleasant for the person on the other side, I had no idea of the level of pain that I caused. I still don’t know if it was words I used, an attitude I projected, or an non-compassionate spirit that was somehow manifested; in any case I can now say that I must have blown it in ways that I still can’t comprehend.

I have learned to deal with quickly making something right after sinning. That’s how I choose to live my life. It means more apologies than I would like, even to the point of embarrassment sometimes (but when you know confession has to come immediately, it becomes an encouragement not to sin, too).  I don’t like to admit it, but there are a couple of times in my life when I have been responsible for relational trauma and let it sit for far too long. But I knew what was going on, I knew how it needed to be addressed, and I knew I had to get around to fixing it. But in this case, I had no idea what was going on and now I have no idea how to fix it.

There are some things you can natural hgh never take back, whether you meant to do them or not. If I drove down the street tonight and didn’t see the kid dart out into the road after a ball and then hit and killed him, I would feel terrible all my life. But I’d never be able to take it back. What if it was my brother’s kid? How would I navigate that mess? Even though I didn’t mean to do it, she’d still be dead. And every excuse or justification in the world wouldn’t bring her back; it wouldn’t matter whether she was being careless, or whether I was swerving to avoid hitting a van full of kids. Nothing could ever make it right.

When you cause that kind of hurt, even though the damage is already done and even though it won’t help, you still say you’re sorry. You do whatever you can to seek the possibility of reconciliation (Romans 12:17-18). You weep. Even if you might have been in the right, any wrong attitudes or ungodly elements that came from you in the situation need to be addressed. Jesus came to bring wholeness to broken people, and when we, as the ambassadors of the One who gives life, are a part of causing that brokenness, we need to walk in humility and brokenness in trust that the Savior will graciously touch both the offended and the offender.