March 26

All Have Sinned

            But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:21-26

             When we talk about sin, we usually consider it to be dangerous on the level of the common cold.  It is a nuisance that will go away eventually if we just take a little bit better care of ourselves.  We know that it affects us and is not how we were created to live.  We know that it can affect those around us, but it is mostly just an annoyance that is going to require tissues and staying in bed to get over.

            In reality, sin is much more comparable with cancer than a common cold.  Cancer kills you from the inside out, corrupting the body and using the very systems that were created for your health to spread death.  It is not something that can just be ignored or pushed away with vitamin C.  Cancer requires dramatic steps…intentional life style changes that give the body the best chance to live.  Sin pollutes our minds and clouds our emotions, sabotaging our relationships with God and everyone else that we come into contact with.  Sin perverts the natural gifts and abilities and passions that we have been created with, transforming our strengths into weaknesses and our faith into fear.

            As parents, we often neglect the care of our hearts and bodies for the sake of our children.  Or, at least, that is what we say.  We are too busy and too tired and the needs of our children are too pressing for us to pursue inner healing.  If we have any extra time in our day we look to be productive with extra chores or we look to relax and decompress or we look to have more human connections or we look to…do anything other than look at our shortcomings and sins.  We are doing the best that we can.  Who could ask for anything more from us?

            Just because we are doing our best does not mean that we are doing the best.  Our best is lessoned because our sin gets in the way.  It holds us back from doing our best like a drag suit.  Swimmers will train with drag suits, extra layers that make it harder to get through the water.  The thought is that if you train with extra weight and resistance, you will be able to go faster when you switch to racing gear.  That works great when you use drag as a training tool, but no one would ever think to keep their drag suit on during big races.

            Sin weighs us down.  It chips away at our hope.  It crushes our joy.  It makes us tired and angry.  We lash out at our loved ones.  Our patience is transformed into apathy.  Our compassion is transformed into jealousy.  Selfless service becomes bitterness and hatred as sin corrupts our relationships with our children.  The relationships and structures that we have put in place to provide healing and life instead become places where jealousy and anger fester, where past hurts resurface and where hope is corrupted and killed.

            If we want the best relationship with our children and the best chance for our kiddos to thrive, we will invest in the care and healing of the care provider.  We will look at our sin, repent where it is needed, pursue healing prayer, and make life choices that give us the best chance of true life.

A moment to reflect:

What sin do you most long for healing from?