To begin with...

I have debated this blog for some time. Can it possibly be efficacious for anyone, or will it only offer me a form of therapy?

I am not starting this for pity. But as I have searched the web, I have not found something written from my perspective...that of a sinner...the offender.

Consider this: Everyday we watch, listen, or read the news and are informed of this or that crime, this or that offence. When it is something we consider quite egregious, our thoughts and feelings naturally go out to the victims. We imagine how horrible it must be for them and we offer prayers for those who suffer.

But how often do we consider the offender? I think our natural (albeit unconscious) inclinations are to "write off" the offender. She or he has committed the crime/offence and now they must suffer the consequences.

But do we ever think the offender might also be suffering as well? While we might sympathize with the intense grief suffered by the victim, do we ever extend that same sympathy to the offender?

I know I seldom if ever thought of the offender.

I do now.

And I know now that even the sinner can feel intense grieving over their guilt.
And feel immense loneliness as their shame prevents them from going out in public.

This is the type of grief that gives new meaning to sackcloth and ashes.

I wonder if this notion of 'writing off' the sinner is the reason why prison ministry is avoided like the plague. We don't understand 'them' or their crime and so we can neither appreciate their repentance nor the possibility of their suffering.

And yet...are we not all sinners? Do we not all know of our own failures?

Or do we take the pill of forgetfulness...that pill being the sin of others.