“One leak will sink a ship: and one sin will destroy a sinner.” ~ John Bunyan
"Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we have hindered the work of the Word of God in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses." ~ Oswald Chambers
I have a confession to make…I have a lead foot. When I am behind the wheel of my car, or any car for that matter I typically exceed the speed limit. I also must confess that because I am some what aggressive behind the wheel of my car that I oft times will not slow down when the light turns yellow. I typically do not stop or slow down, but just keep on going. My son has decided to start counting how many red lights he sees me run, and happily tells me his count when he witnesses my infraction. For the record he seems to be counting by twos and must be color blind. :-)
This same son is learning to drive, and if anything will test our ability to remain calm and serene it is teaching our children how to drive. He is overall a good driver but there was one instance where he was like those Northwest pilots who over shot their runway because they lost “situational awareness.” In this case he thought he could make it through the busiest intersection and didn’t just miss the yellow caution light but clearly ran a light that was already red for a couple of “Mississippi’s”. Now since I am not a hypocrite I simply and calmly told him not to do it again, right? Yeah, right…the truth of the matter is that in a very animated fashion I tried to impress upon him just how dangerous this could be for him and for his passengers.
If you look up the term Situational Awareness on Wikipedia it defines it as; “Situation awareness (SA) involves being aware of what is happening around you to understand how information, events, and your own actions will impact your goals and objectives, both now and in the near future. Lacking SA or having inadequate SA has been identified as one of the primary factors in accidents attributed to human error.” Has it ever struck you that after you have committed a sin or done something that you consciously or subconsciously were aware was questionable, but you ignored the yellow caution light and gunned it to keep on your current course? Do our warnings to others ring hollow because like me you have lost situational awareness of the subtle sins that have creeped into your life?
Jerry Bridges talks about the malignancy of sin in his book “Respectable Sins” and he states; “Sin is a spiritual and moral malignancy. Left unchecked, it can spread throughout our entire inner being and contaminate every area of our lives…None of us lives on a spiritual or social island. Our attitudes, words, and actions, and oftentimes even our private unspoken thoughts, tend to have an effect on those around us.” I think in my own mind that missing the caution or yellow warning signs of sin and running red lights is not harming anyone. Nobody can get hurt and it’s not a big deal. But is my sin contaminating the lives of my family, my Christian community or even the lives of those who have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior?
We think that nobody notices that those claiming to be changed by the Gospel and set apart to honor and glorify God are running the red lights, blowing through stop signs, cutting corners or thinking the “rules of the road” don’t apply to us. What is even worse is when we are so outward focused we are quick to self righteously point out other people’s traffic violations and blithely ignoring our own. But our children notice our inconsistency and make a note of it. What is more humbling is when a fellow Christian notices and lets us know that our lack of spiritual situational awareness was duly noted and we don’t know how it may have effected their walk with Christ.
Bridges states; “Now, here is the unvarnished truth that we need to lay to heart. Even though our hearts have been renewed, even though we have been freed from the absolute dominion of sin, even though God’s Holy Spirit dwells within our bodies, this principle of sin still lurks within us and wages war against our souls. It is the failure to recognize the awful reality of this truth that provides the fertile soil in which our “respectable” or “acceptable” sins grow and flourish.”
This is stating the obvious but “little” sins left unchecked lead to bigger sins. We need to stop being fixated by the apparent sins of others and focus on ourselves. We must stop rationalizing away the caution lights and warning signs of the Holy Spirit and stop before we run those red lights of sin. We need to heed conviction and turn back to God before it leads to loving discipline, or worse yet, punishment for us and those around us. Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you.
“Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” ~ James 4:17
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” ~ Romans 6:12-14
Ouch..
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