Sincerely Wrong

 If only the Corona virus was visible to the naked eye! We would be so relaxed! See the bug anywhere around you? Kill it. Don't see it? Chill it.

The virus can't even move on it's own, much less kill you unless it enters your body. And the reason it has entered and killed so many in spite of so many precautions in place is because THEY CANNOT SEE IT!

For many decades, I just could not see it. Not corona, of course. (I still can't see that). I just couldn't see all the sickening, debilitating, disease and death causing things I was allowing into my system.

Sure, I didn't do drugs or abuse any other substances but the things I was allowing into my life had pretty much the same effect. Why?

[a] I had no understanding of what harm seemingly normal things caused me.

For example, falling in love and loving my husband more than anyone else.

How could that possibly be bad for me, right?

[b] On the contrary, all the things that I now regret letting in seemed very pleasant and appealing at the time. We loved catching the first show of every remotely watchable movie that screened at our local movie theatre. I never thought anything so enjoyable could harm me in anyway.

[c] I had believed the lie that if I wasn't hurting anyone else, everything I did was good. I never even questioned whether my actions were hurting me. As if I was not a person, only others were. I would never deprive my loved ones of something good for them, but I casually deprived myself of what I knew was good for me. I knew the absence of exercise would harm me, but as long as I wasn't harming others, it was all good by me.

I just didn't see sin as sin. And of course, very conveniently, I've only mentioned the 'goody goody' sins here, because I don't want you to see my sin, either. If only you knew what all I've done..haha. Let's not go there.

I had no concept of sin at all. I thought sin was what visibly harmed others or things I felt ashamed even thinking about. But I no idea that I was a sinner, happily inviting sin everyday into my life, to steal and destroy it, without even giving it a thought.

I remember the day it dawned on me that by loving my husband more than anyone, including God, I had

[a] deprived myself of the love of the Only One who could love me completely,

[b] set up unreasonable expectations for my husband to fulfill because he just couldn't love me back the way I needed to be loved (by God) and

[c] hurt my marriage because it had begun on untrue assumptions that we could love each other forever in our own strength.

I cried so much. Because I had no idea for the 1^st four years of my marriage and many prior to that, that by loving my husband above all, I was harming myself, him and our marriage. God alone, deserved first place in my life. And I was sinning against Him by giving that place to anything else. But I just couldn't see it.

Things that seemed so pleasant and enjoyable like binge watching movies or spending our money just because we had two incomes and no kids and could, were actually harming us because looking back now, there were so many many more fruitful investments we could have made with that time and money. I was wasting good resources that so many others too could have benefitted from. But I just couldn't see it.

I never hurt myself knowingly but I never began caring for my body, the dwelling place of the most High God, until I needed it to start doing things for me and it couldn't. I never saw self-neglect as self-harm because I just couldn't see it.

Thanks be to God who opened my eyes to these and so many more ways in which I was casually, routinely, hurting myself in the present and future with my thoughtless sin.

And since then, I haven't been afraid to name it and shame it, see it and kill it!

I endeavour to address sin in my life with the same vengeance that I would if I could see that corona that is hurting so many.

And of course, I can't see my sin on my own. I have the best friend ever in the Holy Spirit who will confront me with my sin everyday. And if I ignore Him or choose to let my own voice drown His out, He'll assign other really good friends to tell it like it is. And boy, I have reallllllly good friends, who love me so much that they are willing to prioritize my salvation at the risk of jeopardizing our friendship. It's hard to find such friends in a world that is conditioning us to get offended at everything and take correction in nothing.

One of them cornered me recently: "Are you ever wrong about anything?!"

I was trapped. If I said 'no' I'd be most obviously a fool. And if I said 'yes', I was making room for a more thorough discussion of how I was wrong. Yikes.

 

I said 'yes' and proceeded to seriously think about where I was wrong and what I was going to do about it.

Sin:0, Me: 1

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Joseph in a dream to encourage him to go ahead and marry his pregnant, virgin fiancee, he told him why all this drama was necessary: "She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21)

Many who know Jesus as a historical figure, a Teacher, a Prophet, a Healer and a Miracle worker forget that the bottom line was that He came to save us from our sins.

We humans na. We sin. And we need a Saviour.

Because the worse thing about sin is it separates us from the One we need the most: God.

Can you see your sin yet? If you can't but you want to, you'll find no better disciplining parent than Jesus' Father, no best bud better than the Holy Spirit and no Saviour other than Jesus.

And don't worry: there is no sin that anyone could have done that can't be washed clean by Jesus.

If you can't see the link, click here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m-DTq8_RqY