Friday, October 7, 2011

Our Sin Nature and the Common Cold

Achoooo!

You'll have to pardon me if I'm a little difficult to understand today, but I have my first cold of the season.

I hate colds.

As I sneeze, sniffle, and generally wait for my head to implode, I wonder if it wouldn't somehow be easier to lose a limb.  Seriously, I admit I'm a big baby when it comes to colds, but couldn't I just offer an arm for a little less congestion.

I think what I hate most about being sick (choose your illness) is how it limits my ability to do the things I want to do. 

Wait, check that.

Illness limits my ability to do the things I sort of want to do, but in general leaves me able to do the things I really want to do.

Watch a ball game? Nothing better when you're sick then laying on the couch, and if there's a game on all the better.

Go for a run?  Maybe I'll have to slow things down a little, but hey, how better to rid yourself of rhinitis acuta catarrhalis then to sweat it out.  Plus, when I'm done I'll be able to brag (at least to myself) that I toughed it out.

But......

Pray?  As it is, it's so hard to stay awake with all this medication.  If I close my eyes I'll be out like a light!

Read my bible?  God, my head's so congested.  I couldn't possibly concentrate right now.

Go to work?  It's so warm beneath this blanket, and besides I would just spread my germs if I went in.

And then it hits me.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:19)

Isn't this what my cold does?  Isn't this what sin does too?

I find all sorts of reasons to not do the things that are right or best, and all sorts of reasons to do the worthless things that may bring pleasure but little else.  I see this in others too, so I hear things like this:

"I'm too tired from work to serve in that ministry."  But I have plenty of energy to go out with the guys after work.

"I don't have time to read my bible."  But I have all the time in the world for Desperate Housewives, Jersey Shore, The X-Factor, American Idol, and ________."

"I don't need Jesus and all those hypocrite Christians."  But I LOVE hanging out with my friends who either bask in their sin publicly or hide their immorality even from those closest to them.

Just consider this a random observation from one near death.

Now can someone pass me a tissue?

1 comment:

  1. We're pretty good at using just about anything that inconveniences us as an excuse to avoid the things we don't want to do and to indulge in the things we like. In fact, I have an honorary doctorate in rationalization :)

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