Saturday, August 3, 2024

Sin is so sticky

That is how I see the scenario involving a man who seemingly has achieved abundance, reaching heights far above and rare for any member of humanity ever (see Ecclesiastes), and then they say something about being miserable. The more self-involved a person gets, the further away from God he feels. When the man begins to notice the separation from the Father, from the one who can be professed as Savior, he begins to feel the absence of peace, and he is reminded that he is human, and mortal, and something pulls at him in that lack of abiding, and he begins assessing the abyss, and assessing the distance between God and himself.

Does this distance provoke the man to give up their previously mentioned earthly pursuits?

The sin is so sticky. Like flypaper. It operates with an enhanced strength. Like a glue trap we can be stuck to our sin, to our greed and selfishness, to our achievement and ambition, to our entertainment and frivolity, to whatever we are doing which is not for the glory of God -because how could it be?-, when it is clearly for the glory of SELF. For everything we do should be done for the glory of God (1 corinthians 10:31). Where is the glory in all that oneness? Where is the glory in all that self sufficiency that disregards the existence of time and chance? Did man wake himself up one day and say, "I am conscious."? Did man put himself to sleep by anything other than biological function?

From what I can tell, Jesus Christ is held at "arms length" to be simply said, and true peace remains absent. Because the closer we get to worldly peace, the less we acknowledge God and the substance of His provision. We are closest to Him when we fully rely on His presence, and are fully aware of His gifts. Every step, every movement, every breath.

Therefore the richest, most successful man in the world can remain miserable, because the sin is so sticky. Jesus told the rich young man to sell everything he owned and give it to the poor (Matthew 19:21-24), but it was so sticky. And he walked away, miserable.

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