I ask you, the reader: Do you understand how difficult it is to be completely honest with yourself? I am talking about looking at what is actually going on without even the faintest tinge of pink in a pair of rose-tinted glasses. As I look at myself, I invite you to take a look at your current events.
No. You may not slip and slide around in the muck to get past a single detail. You must look at each portion of the event, and then ask who did what, and who did what to whom, and how you–and only you–handled each individual situation. Because, you see, we are only responsible for ourselves.
There is a premise in sales that is very appropriate for this subject. I can’t document where it came from because it was a few months back when I found it on the internet, and didn’t save the link.
People buy with emotion, then justify with logic.
Let’s change it now to fit the subject at hand: People react with emotion, then justify their re-actions with logic.
Here we find two truths. First: More often than not, we–Christians who are supposed to be directed by God–perform acts and react based upon the impulse of emotion. Do you understand what kind of “can of worms” this is? Emotions can change in an instant. Hot<>Cold; Angry<>Calm; Depressed<>Elated; Confrontational<>Compliant. Emotions are fickle. F-I-C-K-L-E. Here is another example: Today I doubt–no, today I trust. Well, … maybe, no. I just don’t know. I’m not sure…. and on it goes.
We also make efforts to find our self-worth outside of ourselves. Look at the person riding in their shiny new car or wearing new, expensive clothing. They still are what they are. Our value for ourselves, our love for ourselves, can come from only one place if it is to be certain, and that is from within.
Value for the self, treasuring who you are for what you are–no one can take that away from you. Emotions can change in an instant. Emotions are sometimes even reactions inappropriate to the moment, such as when someone can’t stop laughing after a tragedy. To be ruled by them is uncontrolled chaos. To be true to yourself and who you are is peace.
So now, you ask, does that equate chaos to being in God’s hands–in His control? My answer is no. God is always looking out for our best interest. God always protects His children. To be in God’s hands is to enrich life beyond description. God made us in His image and we are reflections of Him. He is within us and around us, and we are at our very best when He lives in and through us.
Second: When we justify with logic an idea or event based upon something presented as fact but started through emotion, our initial premise can be extremely skued. Off-center. One side of the teeter-totter higher than the other. It is just a bad idea, folks.
Thus, you might now be beginning a truth quest right at this very moment, but you are going down a completely off-beat path because your initial premise was wrong. Here is a for-instance.
For instance. There is a person in my past who insisted that my decisions hurt his family. This person was given false information about me and believed it. Presented with the untruths, this man chose to believe the immediate statements given him rather than pursuing the truth. He reacted out of emotion, was given false information, and then justified his false-truths by creating reasons as to why he was correct.
Another example is the children’s story about Chicken Little who thought the sky was falling. All that Chicken Little needed to do was to to look and see what had fallen to the ground to know that what was assumed out of fear and emotion wasn’t true.
Here are three good rules to remember.
- Make your own judgments. If someone gives you an opinion, take it upon consideration of your experience with him or her, but come to your conclusion based upon all of the information available.
- Base your judgments upon facts, not opinions or assumptions. If you do not have the facts, reserve your conclusions until you do. This doesn’t mean you should act without safety by ignoring cautionery opinions. That would be foolish.
- Make decisions based upon biblical principles. Within the Holy Bible is all the information you or I will ever need to come to a final conclusion. When who and what you are within has been nurtured and developed by Scriptural truths, wrong judgments will not only be wrong they will sound out as alarms in your soul.
All of the above has to do with acting and reacting upon what is happening around us. It is about drawing conclusions possibly incorrectly based upon emotion, or the alternative of drawing conclusions based upon facts. Lastly, it is about allowing ourselves to be controlled by what happens outside of ourselves (chaos), or being controlled by what is within (stability) our soul.
Yet there is another aspect to this subject, and that is how truthful we are with ourselves. This aspect has to do with our human self and our Godly character, a much more intimate relationship to be sure. Some aspects of this relationship have to do with being in the world but not of the world. It has to do with what percentage of our self if placed where in these two circles. One is sin and one is holy forgiveness.
What then is sin? You may think this an odd question, but not all of us are Christians taught to truly feel the humility of the sinful nature. How does anyone understand how sin relates to themselves if the concept of the sinful natures is foreign to their thought processes? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary definitions of sin include the fact that the notion, or concept of sin, is for the most part religious in nature. Perhaps more clear to many will be the synonym for sin, which is the word “offense.”
Most adults understand what an offense is. An offense means that a law has been broken–whether legal, moral or biblical. It can also mean that another person with whom we have had dealing has been put out in some fashion. We might have embarrassed someone or be in that positon ourselves. We might have revealed a secret or slandered another’s character.
However, sin and offense are not one in the same because a sin has a religious connotation while an offense may be either religious or secular. An offense is an act against someone or something. What then changes an offense into a sin? It is the very nature of God’s goodness that lives within each and every one of us who profess ourselves to be Christian that cries out against the act that is not good.
To be Christian, I humbly remind, is to be not only created in the image of God–because we all are–but to acknowledge and profess that image. God is with us and in us. God is good through and through because He can only be good. When we Christians cause offense we bring into ourselves the harm done to another–another person, animal, or living object. Here, inside our souls the offense confronts the goodness of God, and in the soul that offensive sin cannot go unresolved if we are to remain within our confessed faith.
It is part of the battle that is spiritual and belongs to God. For, if we live commited to our Heavenly Father, have given our lives over to Him, dedicated ourselves to His service, that battle is over for us personally. The recognition of wrong that sounded the sin-alarm within us also wouldn’t have been there to go off and we wouldn’t be sad about the event, wouldn’t feel the remorse that we had disappointed God.
When another person other than us is offended by what we have done, when we have broken a law of any sort, the offense is not only against that person or law outside of ourselves it is also against our own self within our body. Our self created in the image of God, that which abides in our soul reflecting back to us now becomes hard to see through the tarnish created by our actions and will remain thus until acknowledged, confessed, and forgiven.
The sinful nature of human force, that ability to be able to cause offense, is within the scope of all people. It is not Godly and it is not part of our created image in His likeness. From where does it then come? It is built into our flesh and free will. Here is where Satan can do some of his nasty work, inclining us with oily persuasion, changing our mind away from Godly thought and action with inuendo and sly suggestion. Jesus’ statement about the willing spirit and weak flesh is still true (Mt 26).
Why do some people acknowledge their creator while others reject Him? After all, He made all people in His image. I invite you to take a look at the book of Romans, chater one.
Returning to the subject of sin and honesty when evaluating ourselves, it is interesting to note that some of the most devout Christian men and women ever to have lived are the faithful who have felt the most sinful in nature. Here then, is another part of the definition of sin and the Christian walk.
The closer we come into the image of God, that is Jesus Christ, the more we see the split between being in the world or being of the world. The closer we come within God even the smallest sin will become large. Why? Because any detraction that comes between resting in the joy and peace of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, is one detraction too many.
Here is when the heartfelt, earnest desire will present itself to share the beauty of that which we now hold dear. Yet, though our love can be shared, ultimately each person must come on their own.
The ending portion of this subject is to define what an offense/sin actually is. A sin is that which causes harm to another emotionally, spiritually or physically. It is a sin whether done willingly, without knowledge, or by accident. I remind that to profess to be a Christian is a joy and a priviledge. It also means having a conscience that is continuously raised to a higher standard–willingly. This is what we confess, for we will not always know when something we say or do causes hurt.
Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy blessèd will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy throne,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee. … William True Sleeper (1819-1904)