I believe we are all engaged in self destruction, everyone of us, though most of us would deny it. We all are doing and thinking in ways that harm ourselves, and there are deadly consequences to our thoughts and actions.  I am talking about sin, that is the wrongdoing and wrong-thinking that we do. We are all guilty of doing it, and it is not healthy.

I know that it is not popular to talk about this today.  Sin is a countercultural topic. People for 50+ years have been saying “I’m okay and you’re okay”.  Most would say that they are, by and large, good people.  And they would say that of others too so as to at least not damage their self esteem. (It is easier to see the faults of others than to see faults in ourselves.)  Reality is we are all damaged goods. We are not okay.  We are broken and not good at all.  Problems in the world are not just out there.  The problems in the world start inside each one of us.  It is ultimately an internal problem, our own sin. 

What does sin look like?  The list of the “Seven Deadly Sins” is a good way to categorize various sins.  They are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.  Pride is considered to be the original and most serious of the sins.  It is where ego and self are directly opposed to God. It is where you say “I can do better than God”, or “I know better than God”.  It is you being self centered. According to a Vatican study, the sin that men were most likely to confess was lust,  while for women it was pride.  What is the sin category you struggle most with?

How does one fall into sin? Father Maximos of Mount Athos says the “holy elders” have described five stages of temptation to sin as: 

1. Assault: The tempting or evil thought first attacks a person’s mind.
2. Interaction: A person opens up a dialogue with the tempting thought.
3. Consent: A person consents to what the tempting thought urges them to do.
4. Captivity: A person becomes a hostage to the tempting thought, finding it more difficult to resist each time one falls.
5. Passion or obsession: The tempting thought becomes an entrenched reality within the person’s mind.

Sin is habit forming. What can you do with that sinful habit of yours?  It is not easy to deal with, but with the Holy Spirit’s help you can nip the tempting thought in the bud.  At stage one, you ignore the tempting thought and put it out of your mind.  That is easier said than done, but it is possible. It is especially difficult if you have fallen many times to that same temptation. The sin can become second nature to you.  To help, there are a variety of 12 step recovery groups around to help and support you in your struggle.  Celebrate Recovery is a Christian 12 step recovery program that covers all you may be struggling with.  It does not matter what your addiction or sinful habit is, whether it be drugs, porn, or gossip.  Celebrate Recovery can help.  They are nationwide with groups all over the USA.

The reality of sin is depressing and very self esteem crushing, but there is good news. Each and every one of us is fully loved by God, despite our sin.  Jesus Christ came into this world to deal with sin and to restore us to God.  Because of him we can have an abundant life in him and ultimately will become free from our sin.  In Christ, we can face the brokenness of the world and of ourselves. Also because of him we have become forgiven children of God. Our sins will no longer define us. God will restore us from our self destruction and we will be made whole.

Is forgiveness a bad thing? Does it hinder justice?  Some activists would say, “yes, forgiveness is a bad thing”.  My Christian faith would say the opposite.  I read a very interesting essay by Timothy Keller on the current state of forgiveness in America.   In today’s individualistic culture, where Critical Race Theory and the Cancel Culture are major influences,  there is very little room for forgiveness.

Back in 2015, racist Dylann Roof entered a Charleston church and shot and killed nine African-Americans.  (Three others survived.)  Soon after the relatives forgave Dylann Roof for the killing.  Some activists opposed the forgiveness, because “The supposed moral obligation of forgiveness was seen as an instrument by which those in power maintained their position.”  They consider forgiveness as giving support to the enemy. In this case, the enemy was white racism.  “They argued that forgiveness is a form of ‘self-renunciation,’ giving up your perfect right to pay back to the person what they did to you.”  That is true but without forgiveness there is little, if any, hope of healing and reconciliation. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love. . . .We can never say, ‘I will forgive you, but I won’t have anything further to do with you.’ Forgiveness means reconciliation, and coming together again.”  

That is what the Christian Faith is all about.  God forgave us so that we might be reconciled to him.  It did not mean that justice was not served.  Jesus paid the price for our sin.  There was a cost. Justice was not forgotten.  We need to forgive in a way that honors justice.

‘Since God forgives us yet in a way that honours justice, so we should also forgive in a way that honours justice. As Don Carson once wrote, “Christians are called to abandon bitterness, to be forbearing, to have a forgiving stance even where the repentance of the offending party is conspicuous by its absence; on the other hand, their God-centered passion for justice, their concern for God’s glory, ensure that the awful odium of sin is not glossed over.”’

An example of this on the national scale is the nation of Germany.  After World War I, justice was served and Germany suffered the cost of making war reparations. I believe because of the heavy cost of justice Hitler rose to power and World War II happened.  After World War II, Germany was a part of the Marshall Plan and received assistance in recovering from the war.  That was forgiveness in action.  There was a cost borne by the USA, but that is a part of the forgiveness, and today Germany is reconciled to the allies.  But note there was still justice.  Its leaders were tried and prosecuted for the horrible things done, and still today German school children learn of the wrongs their nation did.  Forgiveness with justice happened. (Marshall Plan motivation was not about Christian love, but I believe it is still a good example of forgiveness on a national scale.)

Another example of forgiveness on a national scale happened in South Africa, where Desmond Tutu set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which offered amnesty and forgiveness to any person guilty of violence who came forward and publicly confessed what they had done.  This allowed for reconciliation between the former white oppressors and the black majority. Civil war was avoided.

Today forgiveness is countercultural.  Today’s individualistic culture “stresses looking inward to forge one’s own identity based on our desires, and then moving outward to demand that society honour our individual identity and interests.”  That does not allow for the cost of “self-renunciation”, only the exaltation of oneself.  The starting point of the Christian Faith is that we all are broken sinners.  No one is exalted above another. No one is superior. At the same time, as Christians our identity is secure.  We are children of God, and no matter what happens that is who we are.  This is what makes forgiveness possible.

There are three aspects to forgiveness.  We, first, need to embrace the free forgiveness that God has given us.  We can forgive because we have been forgiven due to the costly sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Then we can give up the desire to get even.  We forgive them inwardly, so that we do not dwell on it. It does cost us to give up what is due us.  And thirdly, we seek repentance and reconciliation from the offender.  The goal is to reconcile with each other.

Through the years, Christianity has changed the world for the better.  Forgiveness has played a big part in that change and it will again in the future.

PS All quotes (in italics) were from the essay.  The essay is insightful and is worth a read.

When I look back at my life I see various events that help define me.  Many of the events were part of my brokenness.  I can let those events define my future, or I can define my life backwards.  As a child of God, I know who I am and whose I am.  I know my future is determined.  I will spend eternity with God.  If that is the case, I should define my future in light of that eternal perspective.  My life is not just a cause and effect life, defined by the past, broken as it may be, but instead I can define my life based on its outcome, eternity with God.

Let me give an example from my life. I am a strong introvert. I really did not learn to chit chat until I was in college. The church I attended during my college years was an outreach to college students. I would after church stand around, sipping punch and eating a cookie waiting for someone to come up and talk to me. Conversations were happening all around me but not with me. I was somewhat of a wallflower. After quite a long while, I decided I have had enough of this and I attempted to take part in the conversations. It worked sometimes and not so well other times. Eventually, I learned to chit chat. Still today, others tend to be better at it than me, but I can do it. Because of this broken part of my life story, today, when I see a person alone at church, I will usually approach them and try to strike up a conversation. I want them to feel welcomed and not the loneliness that I felt. God has rewritten that part of my broken story and turned it into a good thing. My life has been redefined by that eternal perspective, and not by the brokenness of the past.

How do we define our lives? We seem to define ourselves by doing.  We respond to the question “Who are you?” by giving our occupation.  Doing seems to define us, but should it?  We might better be defined by our inner self, our “being”.  It is out of our thought life flows all our doings. Unfortunately, this also includes our fears, our struggles, our broken relationships, and our selfishness.  We are broken deep down inside.  But as Christians, we have hope.  God is for us, and he has made us his own.  We can be defined by our identity as a child of God. We are not defined by our broken doings.

With the enabling help of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to repair our brokenness and turn it into a blessing. Too many times we conform to the brokenness around us, to the culture of the world. We may say we are Christian, but many times we act like we are an atheist, thinking only of temporal desires and ignoring God and his wisdom. We need to be transformed and our minds renewed.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

That Romans passage tells us to submit ourselves to God, because of what God has done. We are not to be influenced by the broken world around us, rather we need to be transformed and renewed. This means we need to be intentional and disciplined in dealing with our inner self.  We should not become distracted by the many temporal things around us, rather we need to look to our eternal relationship with God and strengthen that intimate relationship. By focusing on God, and not on the events of the past, we will find wisdom and fulfillment.  (Daily reading of the Bible helps you grow in that relationship.  The S.O.A.P. method is one way of many ways to study Scripture.)

A good start is to note who we are, and whose we are. That definition of “being” is important and it sets the focus. We are God’s own, his children, saved for a life of good works which he has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). We need to recognize that our story is a part of God’s big story of salvation, and he wants to use us. With the enabling help of the Holy Spirit, we can renew our minds and “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

This post was inspired by Ken Boa’s book, “Rewriting Your Broken Story”.

Return to the Lord your God,
     for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (Joel 2:13)

The God, we Christians worship, is one who loves us deeply and desires that we return to him.  Though he loves us, he is also just and there are consequences for our wrongdoing and even our wrong thinking.  That wrongdoing and wrong thinking is called sin.  He wants the best for us but we are very self-centered and what we desire is many times bad for us.  It is easy to see that we are broken.

God’s initial creation was good, very good, but Adam and Eve disobeyed God and broke themselves and all of creation.  Ever since then God has desired to bring us back to him.  He put a restoration plan into action.  Beginning with Abraham and Sarah, he set out to make a people for himself that would bring blessing to all people (Genesis 12:1-3).   From Abraham and Sarah came the people of Israel.  They were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).  They failed over and over again, but God was not stymied. His plan for restoration still moved forward.

Out of love, Jesus came into the world (John 3:16) to do what we could not do.  He was the Israel that Israel could not be.  He lived a perfect life.  He fully loved people and God.   He went to the cross to take our sin upon himself.  His death was the death we deserved.  He paid for our sin on the cross.  And then he rose from the dead.  Because he did all this, we can have a full life in him.  With the Holy Spirit, we can be the people of God and bring blessing and restoration to all people.  We are to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9) like Israel of old, and like Israel we still fail and fail again, but God is still at work.  His restoration plan continues until when he will gather all who believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior together with him in Heaven.

So what does this all mean to us?  First, we need to recognize that we are not good.  We are not even a little bit good.  We are corrupt through and through.  Oh, we may do “good” things but deep down inside is that self-centered selfish side of us that taints everything we do.  We all are bad.  And God wants perfection.  Picture of  a “totally white sheet of paper” as perfection. The very best we can manage is a “dark gray sheet with some black spots”.  We can not by ourselves even come close, but Jesus was perfect, that “totally white sheet of paper”.

Second, we need to recognize that even though we may be a “grimy black sheet of paper”, God still loves us and desires to be in relationship with us.  That is good news and that is why Jesus came so that we can become a “totally white sheet of paper”. Or in other words, we are set free and cleansed from all our sin.  We can then live the good life God has in store for us, and worship and serve him in all purity.

Third, we who follow Jesus are not there yet.  We need to daily turn from our sin and return to God to follow him and do what he desires.  The Holy Spirit continues to be at work in us, transforming us.  One day when we are united with God we will be whole, that “totally white sheet of paper”.

If you don’t have a church home consider attending a worship service at a church near you.  This time of year is a most important time. It is when we especially remember that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead so that we can have a full life in him.  This year, Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, is  March 28.  Maundy Thursday, when Jesus celebrated Passover and changed it into the Lord’s Supper, is April 1.  Good Friday, when Jesus died, is April 2. And Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead, is April 4.  Many churches will have special worship services on these days. Do consider attending a worship service.  (In Loveland, Colorado, I attend Immanuel Lutheran Church and School.  You are welcome to join me and attend there. Or join us online (Youtube or Facebook), if you have Covid concerns.)

And if you want more information about the Christian Faith, feel free to contact me.