Day 3073 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Romans 6:21 NIV

The beauty of hindsight is that it's seen through eyes unstained by the moment.

But the misery of it is that we often see our mistakes only after we’ve made them, long after that moment proved more fleeting than we could have imagined.

You see, we've set out to create for ourselves this ability to warp any given situation or undertaking in such a way that makes it seem everything we want it to be. We've taught our eyes to look past the obvious issues and concerns and warning signs so we can see only the glory which can be gained in seeking indulgence. We carry these minds broken down and reconfigured to actually think that everything unhealthy, unhelpful is actually helping us in some way.

We have in every way chosen to become blinded at any given moment simply so we don't have to see what we don't want to have to be responsible for having realized.

And that's the true nature of sin. It's missing God in the moment. It's choosing to ignore responsibility for a second. It's our decision to settle for weakness simply because it's always going to be the easier, quicker, more rewarding option in that instant. Yet, our society as a whole has made such strides to downplay the true severity of everything that we now look around and see even more reason to forgo the necessity of self-control.

Thus we've become a culture entirely the opposite of what God created us to be. We've traded self-control for self-righteousness. We've given away the promise of a coming reward for one we foolishly and blindly think a passing replacement, simply because it's found faster. We have actually convinced ourselves there's more beauty to be seen in being blind than in having to refuse the lust caused by sight.

And that's clearly a beneficial trait to have developed as we've chosen to embody an arrogance obviously in need of the ability to convince ourselves through lies built on both foolishness and simple misunderstanding that everything we want is entirely acceptable, unquestionably necessary, fully enjoyable and therefore without consequence. We simply don't want to have to realize that we're messing up, making a mistake, doing something we probably shouldn't.

Because to us, we’ve learned to see fun and satisfaction and pleasure as of more reward than storing up for ourselves treasures in another place where they won’t run out.

And so, in the moment, we always seem to opt for the path leading us toward the deception that makes everything seem harmless, because we know it’ll show up quicker.

But the impending reality toward which we find ourselves stumbling is that our actions, our choices, even our words have been planting a crop of unknown's, unseen's that have been growing under the surface, ironically just out of sight so we've not the need to pay attention to the harvest that'll inevitably bloom. That's one of those unfortunate side effects to this idea that we're actually in control.

All we're really controlling is just how foolishly we live these lives.

And that's why we need this ability to distract ourselves in any given moment, any particular situation, any chosen undertaking being undertaken that is only chosen in effort to scratch an itch we don't want to have to find the courage or self-control to ignore. That's what sin is. It's a yearning boiling up from deep inside our deceitful hearts begging us to give in to our lesser wants and wishes.

Here's where that whole idea of self-righteousness comes in that we've been talking about for nigh on a week now. Whenever we insist that we're correct, that we're right, that everything we're doing is completely acceptable to do, well then we've all the reason we need to embrace this blanket assumption that we're immune to mistake. We have every right to believe that we're not doing anything wrong.

We have no reason remaining in our minds which could tell us that we're in need of a change.

So instead, we just throw the hammer down and scream on ahead to the next mishap we've not the interest in not mishandling. We keep our sights locked on whatever hopeless and hollow target has most recently caught our attention. We throw all caution to the wind as we blow past the truth begging us to stop living a lie. And this whole idea is only being fed to flourishing in this modern way of thinking that has everyone convinced that there are no rules and we've the authority to rewrite whatever doesn't match or uphold our arrogant opinions of ourselves.

Just pay no attention to the fire blazing just behind you, sparked by the last moment you chose to not have to care. It’s all fine. Nothing to see back there. Carry on. After all, nobody saw the latest screw-up you just added to your growing list of ruins. Right?

Even through our ego’s obvious contention that God's not paying attention, which is stupidity personally personified, another entirely egregious error is found in that we refuse to learn from the tragedies already behind us. We won't look for the lessons found in the dreams we've selfishly burned to the ground. We don't care to consider the mistakes we've made, no, only interested in trying to stay convinced that we've not made any so far.

All so that we don’t have to care about the next choice we don’t really want to be responsible for making.

What's the benefit of all this foolery? What do we gain by living as if the destruction in our wake isn't solely our mistake? How do we profit, how to we improve, when can we grow if our only moves are only ever sidesteps into yet another mess of mangled mundanity? Is that all we want for ourselves, a broken-record life repeating the same lunacy as the day prior? Is this all we want, this life of having to cling to assumptions hoping to never fail or fall or be proven wrong?

If we could only dare look behind us, even for a second, we'd see that self-control isn't merely a suggestion but a necessity. We'd find an endless array of examples of what happens when we look only for excuses to keep doing whatever we want in order to do it and have it all our way. We would maybe realize that we've been racing down the wrong path for years, finally to the ability to admit that we've truly not found anything worth having.

In fact, if we had the courage to reconsider our past choices and the transgressions of reality and responsibility and reason to which they led us, we just might find that all we've been left holding is a guilt so heavy that we lost the ability to move, to breathe, to hope.

I think we often underestimate the strength of the chains that sin forms around our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears and our lives. We refuse to consider that we're actually enslaved to things that are enslaving us. We don't want to realize that our eyes have truly become stained with the allure of all that this world claims it has the ability to offer. We don't want to acknowledge the freedom we've only failed to find in all this time spent living carefree.

But if we never slow down in order to finally fully consider our pasts and what we've done with them, what we've found in them, well then we'll never be able to do anything but repeat them. Sure, we might for a little while avoid the shame and guilt of it all, but in the end, avoiding it only allows it to continue adding up until the time when God forces us to face it.

And should we choose to put it off just long enough, God will give us all of forever to think it over in a place filled with the harvest our refusal to grow up chose to reap by continuing to plant nothing but seeds of selfishness and stupidity.

In recent days I've shared a few of my personal grappling's with the horrid results of a self-righteous life. Having to watch better dreams go up in flames. Carrying the weight of knowing I chose a path that may have led me forever away from better things I always hoped to find in this life. Looking in the mirror only seeing a monster looking back. You know, there have even been movies, shows, songs that I for a long time couldn't watch or listen to because they reminded me of mistakes and poor choices I'd made.

Sin's harvest is being reaped every single day in ways we likely don't notice, because again, our eyes are stained by the moment. We only want to see what we want to see, and we only want to see that which pleases our need for immediate gratification. Friends, I'm telling you that though it might come faster, sin's pleasure brings with it a shame that far outlasts the fun.

What have you reaped through the crops your selfishness has planted but that you've ignored harvesting? What have you gained down all the winding roads you've wandered looking for a bit of pleasure or enjoyment? What have you actually found that you can say you're thankful to have found in all the dark places your blindness has led you to living?

Are these things fun to think about? No. Would we rather just speed off toward the next moment of selfish satisfaction as opposed to forcing ourselves to consider the cost of those mistakes we've already charged against our souls? Absolutely. But at some point we're going to do what needs to be done, whether we want to do it or not. That's the inevitability of responsibility.

God will not let us off the hook simply because we don't want to be caught doing something we know we shouldn't have chosen to do. There is accountability in life, and the sooner we embrace that, the sooner we'll start starving away all that's been starving us.

My point is that all of us have shame. All of us have guilt. All of us have an encyclopedia of stupidity that we've written along the path we followed through our pasts. All of us have things we are so embarrassed for having done that we truly don't want to even consider that we really did them. But if we keep running from them, we'll only run into the cost of them with nobody there to help us square the debt.

Sin will always be pretty. It will always feel good. It will forever have this appeal that is custom made to satisfy our desires. And so sin will always be ready to give us everything we think we want. But if we have the courage to scourge our waywardness and prune away the fruitless foolishness growing incessantly inside, God will help us learn to think differently, to see differently, to live differently.

And His ways are truly far higher and better and more rewarding than ours ever have been or ever can be. His ways point toward the promise of everlasting life. Our ways only keep dragging along reminders of the endless death we’ve already lived.

All we can possibly find living life our way is more of what we've already found: A little bit of fun buried beneath a mountain of regret. Is it worth it? Is that what you want? Are a few seconds of enjoyment really comparable to an eternity of peace? That's a question everyone has to answer for themselves. And while in that moment when sin is shining and our hearts are racing and our minds are thinking about how much fun we could be having, that's when we need the ability to listen to someone other than ourselves.

We need that still, small, whispering voice telling us to stick to the path that leads to life rather than lust.

May we have the courage to consider what we've gleaned from the life we've planted so far. I dare say we'll find that it's not worth what we lost along the way. And if we can finally allow ourselves to admit that we've gotten it all horribly wrong, then we just might find the humility that inspires us to ask Jesus to wash it all away so that God can lead us toward something better than we've always wanted.

Indeed, if only we could learn to see past our desires to the death they're planting inside, one day we might be able to reap something other than a harvest of shame.

Where is the path you’re following leading? If it’s not to life then you can be certain that death is all you’ll find. Don’t believe me? Stare down the things you’ve done that you’re now ashamed of and ask yourself if you don’t wish you’d have seen it differently at the time.

All of us have those scars, but sadly, very few choose to learn from them. All because doing so demands eyes not caught in a single moment spent ignoring all the other mistaken moments smoldering in the background.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold