What is sin?

Dang, I must have heard this one a million times growing up: “We’re all sinners, and Jesus came to die for us.” They would all say. Man, with how many times I heard it, I’m surprised those words didn’t come oozing out of my ears. I wouldn’t be shocked if my mom called me today and said I said that in my sleep. But the sad thing is: I never really understood what they meant. Lately I have been putting on my idiot brain, and trying to see what this means in my everyday life. I think I found something. 

Sin has to do with what we do with the things we are given. It’s our choice to do evil. But what is evil? My sunday-school answer was always “that which turns us away from God.” But let’s get ourselves a street-answer, shall we? Sin is when we use what we have been given to permanently break stuff. That coffee mug my wife got me for my birthday? I could use it to surprise her with coffee in bed or I could break it upside her head (and before you call the cops, chill out. I’m not married.) The point is we have a tendency to take everything we have been given and use it to do stuff that will make our lives permanently worse. 

You see, sin is addicting. Sin is the fun up front. Getting angry, talking smack behind someone’s back, it feels good. That’s why we all do it. Yeah, you heard me: ALL. Everyone has at least one sin that has them by the throat. Sometimes we are just too blind to see it. I know I was for a while. I had to see where some of it was leading me to understand that I needed rescuing. We all have that one thing that, given enough time, would break us apart. 

I did it for a while. I kept running from job to job, friend group to friend group. I was covered in gunk. I felt powerless half the time, didn’t feel like I was worth much, got desperate and compromised myself at every turn (I even agreed to board games at one point. God truly saved me from dark places!) I coped with it all by huffing line after line of ambition. I kept pushing for more, more, more. I could never hoard enough money, my raise was never big enough, and it started eating me alive. When I couldn’t satisfy my ambitions, I would take it out on everyone around me. My friendships, along with my health, suffered because I was on a one-way trip to wrecking the life I had been given. 

Sin is our ability to steer ourselves wrong. Proverbs 14:12 says that there is a way that looks right to us, but in the end that way leads to death. When we say we got this, we don’t. We think our way will get it right, but it doesn’t. We think we know what will make us happy, but we’re wrong. “Oh, today was just rough, I just need a beer.” We will tell ourselves. But one beer turns to two, and before you know it you’re an alcoholic. We all have junk that piles up underneath, and only God can put us on a path to getting rid of it and going in a different direction in life. And all you need to do is follow.

But the same beer, when used wisely, can bring friends together for celebration. God can use all the same stuff for different reasons, to tell us different things. It isn’t about the stuff as much as it is about how it gets used. The game of Christianity is about learning how God wants us to use the same stuff we have been given to walk towards living instead of dying. For example, I have seen my friendships break because I have been an idiot, and I have seen friendships break because God has been telling me that it’s time to move on. It’s almost the same thing on the outside, but it happens for very different reasons. 

I think I want to do a separate post about hearing from God, so if that part still sounds a little confusing, I’ll get to that when I have some more time. I want to put some more time into that part of the story. For now, I just want to help you really see that sin is not good. It feels good, but on our own, it will kill each and every one of us, no exceptions. The decisions we make and the things we value will make us wreck ourselves every time. And if you haven’t experienced it yet, give it time. You aren’t strong enough to beat sin. No one is. You need someone to get it right for you. Trying to get it right on your own is like trying to make enough spit to give yourself a shower. Even if you could do it, which you can’t, it’d still be gross. You need Jesus as the shower to walk you through to a life that doesn’t end in everything getting wrecked. There’s just no other way. 

I pray you do better than me, and make that U-turn before you smack rock-bottom. Because that sucker hurts. I pray you set yourself on the good path ahead of time so that you can avoid a bunch of hurt. Life will hurt anyway, but there’s no hurt quite like falling into the pit of despair alone. Make the U-turn, come to Jesus. Grab a bible and start hunting for a church. Jesus says if you seek, you will find. All you need to do is ask. 

Until next time

Cheers

ACTION STEP If you aren’t following already, it might be time to get it right. Don’t make a list of the bad decisions you’ve made, just pray to God and tell Him that you’d like to make a U-turn. Ask Him to show you the way, the next steps. Find a church and buy yourself a bible. 

If you have already made the U-turn, remind yourself of the next step God has asked you to do as you follow Him. It could be forgiving someone who hurt you, asking to be forgiven, or not being so hard on yourself. Ask God for your step right now.