weissblog

‘All sins are equal’

It’s a phrase that’s real easy for Christians to quote when they’re talking about something that doesn’t hit home. But let someone’s sin interfere with their life and all the sudden it’s a major sin. Of course I’m generalizing here. But you get my point.

Recently a family member of my wife’s was accused of breaking a law. When word of this reached us, it greatly distressed my Amanda. For several days she was tense, couldn’t sleep, and all she seemed to be able to talk about what this situation and how she couldn’t believe this person broke this law again. At first I tried to stay out of it as best I could while still providing Amanda with some emotional support. After a couple days I started distancing myself from the situation as all the emotions from Amanda’s family seemed to be spiraling out of control. At the center of all the emotion was disbelief and the disgust. They couldn’t believe their relative did THAT. Because THAT was such a great sin.

Before I go any further, let me give a few facts. The law that this person is accused of breaking is not minor at all. And most people would describe it as sick.

But the point I’m trying to make here is that a sin is a sin. And that the revulsion that we feel when confronted with a situation such as the one Amanda’s family has been dealing with… well, God doesn’t see it any different than when you said that last curse word. It’s on par with that ‘little white lie’ you told your boss last week. There’s no difference from His perspective. We humans try to make these things difficult, but it really isn’t. Sin is sin. And no matter the sin, it all does the same thing. It separates you from and hinders your walk with, God.

So, I challenge you, and I challenge myself, to stop grading sins. Stop comparing your sins to the sins of those around you. Instead, put that effort into making changes to your life so that you can walk even closer to God.

The last couple months have really been rough. For those who deal with me on a regular basis, you’ve seen my general vibe change several times as I’ve walked this stretch of the road called life. I’ve had to deal with depression/worry, a month on antidepressant drugs, recent diagnoses that I have ADD, more worry. All this started due to martial problems (as my previous post made fairly obvious). But problems spread. The worry over my marriage began to affect my ability to focus on work, which in turn affected the amount of work I’m able to do, which resulted in a 25%+ drop in my income, which caused more worry. Rinse, lather, repeat.

When you’re facing problems you have to make choices. Do I ignore the problem, run from it, try to fix it? If I run, where do I go? If I try to fix it, what do I do? I don’t like change. As such I usually try to find a solution that requires the least amount of change.

But this time around, all the solutions require a great deal of change. Until I make those changes I’ll be uncomfortable, unhappy, and quite moody. I’ve been told by others that once I make the changes I’ll be happy again. Logically that makes sense… and I’ve always prided myself in being a logical individual. But still I find myself fighting change, even after agreeing to it. Part of me still wants the change that would be caused by running from this situation. But I’ve given my word that I’d stand my ground and make the changes required of me. Last night at church I said a simple prayer. I asked God to either remove that urge to run or to provide me a door to run through, but not to leave me in a room with no exit and a desire to run. I sat through a great service last night where the Holy Spirit was moving mightily and I left the same way I entered because I couldn’t stop thinking about myself long enough to enter into His presence. So much for me being logical.

So what does all that have to do with the title of this post? Simple. No matter how bad you think the situation you’re in is, your opinion of it is all a mater of perspective and can be changed in an instant. This morning I went from being totally self absorbed to feeling enormous empathy for a complete stranger. All I did was read a blog post on his MySpace page. And now I sit here with the same problems that seemed so enormous before and they look so much more manageable. The problems haven’t changed. I’m still behind at work, I’m still behind on some bills, I still have to make some major changes in myself and in my marriage. But now I can feel a touch of hope in my heart. I feel some encouragement to press on. After reading what Wayne wrote, I can’t help but feel that if he can have the attitude that he has after what he’s been through… where do I get off acting the way I’ve been acting? That’s not to say it’s going to be easy, just easier, now that my attitude has been adjusted.

And for this I thank Wayne for willingly sharing his story. And I thank God for letting me somehow stumble across it earlier today.

And for my readers I leave you with this: Any problem can look like a mountain or a molehill, it all depends on your prospective. If you don’t like your perspective of your situation, just pray as I did last night. God will hear you and He will help.

In our accountability group class yesterday at church our discussion started out about tomorrow being the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. As the topic shifted and new subjects were brought up I noticed that everyone in the group, myself included, seems to have their own opinion on what a Christian’s role in society is these days. Some seem to to feel that a Christian should pray for our government as commanded in the Bible but spend the rest of our time trying to spread the Gospel of Christ to the exclusion of getting involved in any politics. Others felt that while evangelism was important we still have a civic responsibility to promote candidates that support our beliefs.

This really got me to wondering, what does the Bible say our responsibility is in society? Should we support organizations such as the ACLJ? Or should we spend all of our free time witnessing to the unsaved among us? Do we stand up and fight against the homosexual agenda or do we stay in our prayer closet and continue to pray against it? Do we protest outside of abortion clinics or sit at home an pray for a change of heart in the doctor and nurses that work there? Do we voice our opinions or just keep them to ourselves and continue in prayer?

Right now I think a Christian should both pray about these things and then, after spending some time in earnest prayer seeking God’s Will, speak out and take an active role in the political and legal arenas. But, is that what God says? The Bible is clear in it’s command to pray for the government and to pray for the lost and seek to evangelize. And, to be perfectly honest, I think if the majority of Christians would just spend time, daily, in prayer for our world that things would change drastically. But is that enough? Should we do more than just pray? I’m unaware of any scriptures on our role in the realm of government/political activism. The only thing that comes to mind is:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke

But that quote says Edmund Burke under it, not God; so while it makes sense to me I’d still like to see what the scriptures say about it all. So, fire away people. Let me know what you think a Christian’s role is in our society.

The recent news of Republican Senator Larry Craig’s arrest during a sex sting operation got me to thinking about things. It seems that every few months some noticeable figure from the church or affiliated with the church is getting publicity for some sin they’ve committed. And while I would never try to rationalize their actions I do usually try to rationalize the media’s response, since they’re all liberals atheists anyway (said tongue in cheek, mind you).

At church tonight we were continuing a Bible study on prayer and some scriptures were presented talking about repenting of any sin that we have outstanding so that there would be nothing to hinder our prayers. Then Pastor referred to 2 Samuel 12 where God sent Nathan to confront David for committing adultery and murder. It reads:

For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
2 Samuel 12:12

Pastor followed this up by stating that God loves us so much that He will see to it that we are found out if that’s what it will take to make us repent from sin. That’s not to say that Senator Craig is guilty of what all he’s being accused of. I have no way of know that one way or the other. Rather, the point I’m trying to make is simply this, no matter how many locks you place on that closet door, sooner or later that skeleton will come out of the closet and you will have to face it. Or, you can repent of it before it’s too late. But, in the end it’s your call.

This will definitely affect the way I react when the next leader get’s exposed.

This morning we went up to the office to pay rent on our apartment. While my wife ran in to pay the rent I sat in the van with my younger two daughters. During this time, my five year old and I had the following conversation. Of course this is probably one of those, you had to be there moments, but I wanted to try and share it as best as I could anyway.

Read the rest of this entry »