Why does everything is this world get so messed up? Why are people messy to be in relationship(s) with? Why are things (that should be so easy and simple) so difficult? Why can’t everything just “flow?”
Why? Why? Why?
I know that God created the earth and made everything good and that He gave people a choice, free will. I know that because of poor choices humankind has experienced what we know as “the fall.” Adam and Eve. Why Eve, why? I have thought long and hard about what I would have done in Eve’s place. I’m sure she regretted it horribly, and she had to live with her decision for the rest of her life. But life went on and there were good things that God still did for humankind. Good things that He still continues to do.
But the selfish reason that Eve was tempted to acquire more knowledge still exists in the world today and it is called sin. Now, sin is a word that normally does not come up in my verbal vocabulary. I don’t know much about it other than what it is (or can be) and that it separates us from God. But when I began thinking about the messiness of this world and myself and other people, it dawned on me that it is all because of sin. Sin messes things up! I don’t really like the word, it makes me feel all religious for some reason to talk about sin, and I really don’t care for
religion. But the more I thought about it-- the freer I felt and the clearer I viewed life. It’s not you, and it’s not me, but sin will mess us up.
I mean, we will have a choice. We can choose not to sin, we are never obligated. It might seem like something small (and it won’t “feel” right) but sin is like a slowly clogging drain. One day the drain will not work if you keep throwing gunk down it.
Or maybe like Will’s heart attack that he had almost three years ago. If a person continues to put unhealthy things into their body (bad foods, smoking cigarettes, etc…) eventually their artery is going to clog. I learned a lot about this in a short amount of time! As a thirty year old wife, I never dreamed I would know how a stent worked to open an artery. And we also learned the repercussions of unhealthy choices. It was scary! It was messy! and it was really, really expensive.
How does that NOT happen? You stay away from toxic gunk that clogs life, right? How?
(thinking, thinking….)
Truth.
Truth is like fresh water from the spring. It is clean, pure, and perfect. It is like a clear Spring day. It is like the bread of Life. It is whole and fulfilling and full of Wisdom. Truth denounces lies.
Where do we find it? In God’s word-- and God speaks His truth to us if we pray and ask for it. He’s not going to withhold good things from us, especially when we ask for them in Jesus’ name! Without Jesus we would be bound up in sin gunk, but He came and died to set us free.
Sin can start out so seemingly small and harmless and things can still “flow” before there are real signs of disharmony. So, really knowing and using God’s Word and exhibiting self discipline are crucial. I’m not so good about these things, but I hate the idea of sin clogging up my life so bad that I have to have a heart attack before I wake up to the awful mess that I’m in.
I doubt that I ever do (or will) go a day without sin messing up my life in some way. But free will gives us all a choice of nasty clogging gunk or fresh Spring water.
So, I'm prepared to search...and expect to find.
1 Corinthians 10:23-24"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
(NIV)
