This finally cost me something real: a job, and a friendship I cannot get back. How do I face what my own choices did?

“And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.”

Nathan confronts David over Bathsheba and Uriah, and David's answer is four words with no excuses attached to them. The forgiveness is immediate, and the consequences that run through the rest of the book are not cancelled. Second Samuel holds both of those together without flinching, which is one of the more honest things in the Old Testament. Being forgiven and living with fallout are not contradictory.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Paul uses farming language with a church tempted to think the ordinary rules did not apply to them. Sowing and reaping describes how the world works rather than threatening divine retaliation, and there is no gloating anywhere in it. In the same breath he goes on to talk about not growing weary in doing good, which is exactly where someone in your position has to aim.