WHY SIN DOESN'T FEEL LIKE A CHOICE

Even in church the concept of sin gets only vague recognition.  It seems to be more of a theological topic to be debated rather than noted as sheer rebellion spewing from the heart of man.  Before you sense this is a power-fisted rant by a squint-eyed preacher, wait.

This is not a rant.  It is an explanation hoping to help each of us who feel shackled by pushy forces larger than ourselves.  I include foremost myself.

Sin isn't an element of nasty or vulgar and only a few (well, okay, a lot) have it.  Sin is sweeping devastation intending to eradicate the hopes and dreams of every heart.  It is vicious.  It is cunning.  It is destructive.  It is also gigantic in measure as well as strength.

The overwhelming nature of sin goes basically undefined.  It isn't a breeze.  It is a tornado.  It isn't a kitten.  It is a wounded tiger.  It isn't sneeze.  It is an epidemic.  It isn't an itch.  It is a terminal disease.

And this is my point.  Sin is so overwhelming that it seldom feels like a choice.  Instead, it feels like what?  It feels like we can't help it.

We can't help it, we say.  Varying according to sins, the cries of self-defense can be heard seemingly before the words are uttered.  Some can't help it that they are addicted to porn.  Others can't help it because they are gay.  Yet, others can't help it because they are overrun by the thirst for greed.

Why is it that if God calls anything sin that man tries to call it a matter with which we were born?  It isn't because God doesn't know His creation.  Rather it is because the very core of sin has been dismissed.  (Again, I'm not yelling.  I'm wishing to open our minds as to what is happening to all of us.  I need this.)

Sin has been marketed and bought into as devastating only when someone else is committing an act that we would never commit.  When it comes to those sins like mine? Oh, those.  Those are the ones that we just can't help.  And, religious people just seem to be so narrow and closed-minded (when it comes to sins like mine).

If we are to get a glimpse of rugged sin we need only look at the rugged cross.  Jesus didn't die so that kiddies could have Sunday School artwork.  He faced the most ferocious, life-sucking villain ever; my sin/our sin.  And he won.

Sins (our personal ones) often feel like we don't have a choice.  But we do.  We have been relieved of this conflict.  This doesn't call for understanding of how it works as much as it insists on obedience to God when, truthfully and often, we just don't get it.

It is sin's vicious power and violent strength that go undetected.  We hardly note that we've been sucked into a falsehood of believing that whether gossip or thievery or any other sin, that God calls sin, have been dismissed as a matter of, we just couldn't help it/we didn't have a choice.

This is the temptation I have.  I wondered if any of you feel the same.