Minimized, But Still There

This isn't my writing. It's today's (April 2, 2009) message from Peacemaker Ministries. I was immediately reminded of my earlier post that discussed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll's desire to "free" Mr. Hyde came about because Jekyll had never learned to deal with his evil nature as a young man. Confession of our sins to Christ is the key to forgiveness! Oh, how different Jekyll's story and our own lives would be if confession is made.

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If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

Because most of us do not like to admit that we have sinned, we tend to conceal, deny, or rationalize our wrongs. If we cannot completely cover up what we have done, we try to minimize our wrongdoing by saying that we simply made a "mistake" or an "error in judgment."

- Taken from The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict by Ken Sande, Updated Edition (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2003) p. 120.

Food for Thought

Regardless of how you look at it, there's nothing small about sin.

Think about it this way: on your computer, depending on the operating system you use, there are probably several little boxes at the bottom of your screen. They exist down there because they've been minimized -- they were the primary window, but in order to give attention to something else, they were minimized and they'll be returned to later. They are out of sight, but they're still there -- with all the nouns and all the verbs, all the email messages, and all the stuff to buy.

Ken wisely shows us that we do the same thing with sin. Sin may be the primary thing going on in our lives at the time, but in order to keep life going or give attention to something else, we minimize the wrongdoing and tuck it away, somewhere in the margins of our hearts. However, it's still there. In all of its ugliness, in all of its selfishness, in all of its rebellion…

Instead of minimizing our sin, it's best to leave it in the forefront and then fully confess it to a faithful Father, who will remove it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). And that's a whole lot better than just sending it to the recycle bin!