Sounds attractive in a certain kind of way - quick trip out to sea in a canoe, leave your debts behind, get the misses to claim the old life insurance, move to Panama and Robert's your mother's brother...

... except that life doesn't work that way, does it? We can leave things behind but they'll catch up on us if they are not sorted. I can't imagine why John Darwin came back, but it is fairly clear that he has come back to a shed-load of trouble, to say nothing of his relationship with his sons.

I think this is, in part, why God deals in forgiveness. We can't walk away from mistakes, debts, shortcomings, or failures. They need to be dealt with. I don't know if God could just wipe away our mistakes, but even if he could he chooses not to because that would be to dehumanise us.

No, he looks us in the eye, holds us accountable for our lives, and then forgives us if we will but ask. It's painful, it demands humility, but it is the way of life.