Sin

My husband is a really smart guy. He catches things. I don't usually catch them until he points them out to me. It's that way with my sin a lot.

We were coming home from Caregroup (which is our weekly bible study) last week and Stephan made an astute observation:

"It's so much easier to turn from our sin when we call it like it is."

Pretty profound. If you recall the post from February 6th (Watch your language!) you'll remember it was about just that - calling sin what it is. When we euphemise our sin, we make it sound less severe. It's not as bad to 'get ticked off' as it is to 'get enraged.' What Stephan was saying was when we call sin sin instead of softening our language, the true severity of our actions is laid bare, and though the stakes had never changed, they seem higher to a mind that is used to illusory lower ones. When we view the stakes and severity correctly, the truth is that they are much higher and of grater gravity than our language lets on. In this perspective - the true perspective - it's certainly easier to turn from our sin because we see it for what it is: death-deserving rebellion and grieving to God.

This has been my experience lately. I've started praying that God would start helping me 'un-neutralize' my language and help me call my sin sin. With his help it's happening more often, and I'm finding it easier to repent when I recognize the gravity of what I'm doing. When I call "feeling icky" what it truly is - discontent self-pity - I remember that those sins nailed Jesus to the cross. That's exactly what he died to set me free from, and calls me to turn from. Just feeling 'icky' sounds like it has nothing to do with God at all. I myself can be deceived by such neutral terms, and in that deception I believe that it's not really sin - or even not-sin - that I'm dealing with. It's just feeling icky. What a dangerous place to be...

Stephan and I were having our quiet times this morning. He shut his bible and said "Man, the more I read, the more I realize that I sin all the time." It's true - we're completely permeated. Answer me this: can you walk through the mall or drive to work without thinking badly about someone - without ever thinking "I'd could do that task better than that person" (would you call that pride or "honest assessment"?) "That color was a terrible choice for them!" (would you call that arrogance or "constructive criticism"?) "Hm, drives a Hummer. Probably a stuck up person. " (would you call that judgmental or "calling it like it is"?) "Trying to cut me off, huh? No way man, I deserve better treatment than that." (would you call that pride or "self-respect and confidence"?) I find I'm usually throwing uncharitable judgments with both hands as quickly as I can pick 'em up! If we're honest, we're all looking at the world through me-colored-glasses, and whenever we do that, we're going to sin - because we are focused on ourselves instead of our God.

May I encourage you all to change your glasses? Try gospel-colored-glasses for a day. Try asking yourself "did Christ have to die to save me from the consequences of that thought/action/statement?" I think you'll be surprised at how bad the problem of your own sin is - but yet glad that God was merciful and revealed it. It's easier to stop an action when we're honest about that action advancing the 'good guys' or the 'bad guys'. Jesus says in Luke 12 that all things will come to light one day. Why not turn our flashlights on now and start weeding this stuff out - and save ourselves some bitter surprise on judgment day? Remember the condition of your heart:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? --Jeremiah 17:9

Distrust your heart. Don't let it tell you "this action is neutral, neither sin nor non-sin". Nothing is neutral. It's either for God or against him. Try categorizing your world like this. I think you'll find it easier to lay down sin and take up righteousness when you do. It's sure helping me!