A person can be held accountable for what they have done without being told that what they have done is all they will ever be. The past matters. Harm matters. Responsibility matters. But a person’s past does not have to possess their future.
That is a deeply Christian hope. Yet we struggle to believe it. We define others by how they hurt us, and we define ourselves by the decision, hidden addiction, or moment when we knew better and still chose wrongly.
Some prisons have walls made of steel. Others are built from guilt, shame, fear, resentment, addiction, or the belief that we can never change.
But the good news in today’s Scriptures is that a no to God does not have to be our final answer.