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Central Family,
Through the vast majority of the history of the Christian movement, followers of Christ have taken sin very seriously. Christ followers did not want to offend God in thought, word or deed. The recognition and acknowledgement of "sin" was real, and repentance each day was the way to an abundant and joyful life. It seems that today, we do not think much about sin; or "sin" is something some other terrible person is involved in.
As we walk through Lent, how can we repent and reform our lives, if we do not feel the urgency and terrible verdict of the diagnosis: "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) It seems that we have trivialized sin, or used it as a tool of manipulation. And yet sin is still the PRIMAL PROBLEM of life. Sin is a failure to do God's will, sin is thinking, saying and doing what we ought not to think, say or do. I am not talking about a cumbersome list of "should's and should not's." To the contrary, God has a plan and purpose for each of our lives. God's design for us is greater than we can even imagine. To often we settle for less, or get out of sync with God's design, we hurt (even if we think we are having a great time), and God grieves.
Sin is addictive: thought becomes act, act becomes habit, and habit becomes necessity. Sin is blindness to God, becoming self absorbed and entrapped in a culture that undermines God's plan and ultimately leads to destruction. To acknowledge sin is to be humbled, to recognize our helplessness and powerlessness. This acknowledgment of our weakness is the opening of the door to God's cleansing forgiveness and new life in the Spirit.
Sin is sneaky: our very attempt to avoid sin and be "good people" can be exceedingly sinful. This past week I read an excellent article by Dr. Kalas. He writes, "I remember simple holiness. I met it in my childhood: a series of things that were forbidden. Some of these rules cut into my social life in my high-school years, but they were actually pretty easy to manage. You didn't really need a particularly profound change with in order to obey these rules. They didn't go very deep, and they were quite manageable.
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