We’ve all messed up and fallen short before God. We’ve all sinned. We’ve all certainly made a mistake or two in our lives.
We say this stuff pretty regularly, or at least I have, especially after someone has messed up and is beating themselves up about it. We want to fix it. Make someone feel better, and perhaps just make the situation go away.
Let’s get this straight though: a mistake and sin are not identical. We often associate the two and make them synonymous, but a sin is something that goes against God. It’s something immoral against God’s Word. A mistake is much more generic, and is labeled as simply a wrong or misguided act. You can call somebody by the wrong name, or spell it wrong and that is considered a mistake, but by calling someone a degrading name and being unkind is a sin because that goes against God’s Word. The one thing they both have in common are the need to apologize, learn from the situation as to not repeat it again, and make steps to prevent it happening in the future.
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no greater commandment than these.”
Mark 12: 30-31
Part of my job as quality manager is to follow-up about scrapped parts and non-conforming products. My co-workers joke that they do the walk of shame when coming to tell me about their mess-ups. Simple mistakes caused by human error. Things happen. Sometimes we don’t do things perfectly no matter how hard we try. We don’t intentionally mess up or think “you know, I know this is wrong but I’m going to do it anyway.” When we deliberately do something we know is wrong, now that is a sin.
Well, I made a mistake last week at work. I had to write myself up for it. As soon as I realized I was in the wrong, I started to cry. I felt horrible for messing something up, a task that I have completed just fine countless of times before. It was a fairly simple fix too. We called the customer and worked something out, and all will be fine. But I still felt bad for messing up in the first place and not paying enough attention to what I was doing.
Usually I’m the one writing other people up, but this was the first time my name went down on the record for the non-conformance. My dad, Pawpaw, and husband all kept telling me it was okay and we ALL have made mistakes before.
My reaction made me think about my relationship with God. Once I realized my mistake at work, I immediately went to my boss, who just happened to be my earthly father. But when I make an immoral mistake, like gossiping behind someone’s back, participate in worthless and fruitless activities, be ugly to my neighbor, do I immediately run to my heavenly Father once I realize what I’ve done?
Honestly, sometimes I do. And honestly, sometimes I go to several other people and complain about what I’ve done or seek advice from others when I really should have just gotten on my knees in the first place to tell Him what I’ve done. I can surely testify to the scenario in which things end up truly resolved with less damage…
We should be more concerned about those bigger mistakes, those slip-ups when then flesh takes over and we ignore the call of the Holy Spirit telling us no. I cried over a simple human error at work because I was worried what others (co-workers and a customer) would think about me. I worried about the consequences of that action. If I’m being honest, I don’t always have the same reaction when I have sinned before, and I should.
A sin, an immoral act against God’s Word, is not just a simple mistake made at work, and also has graver consequences. If I were to ignore my sinful wrongdoing when I KNOW I messed up, it can lead to multiple things: God’s wrath and judgement (really don’t won’t to mess with that), getting lost spiritually in the dark and not knowing which way to go, I could lose people and things dear to my heart on this earth, and/or my heart could become hardened without allowing the love of Jesus to take my transgression, learn from it, and grow closer to Him. These are just to name a few of the ones I experienced.
Our sin is not something to sweep under the rug. Jesus is not something we can celebrate once, maybe twice a year and call it even. A relationship with Jesus does not automatically mean we become perfect people. Accepting Jesus into your life and acknowledging, realizing, and believing what His sacrifice on the cross meant for us, means a broken human has been covered by His blood and has chosen to fight his or her fleshly desires each day to grow closer to the One who we love with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds and with all our strength.
And when we do mess up as followers of Christ, we must come to Him with a heart of true repentance, asking guidance from our boss, the creator over all and everything, the One who guides our footsteps each day. My Christmas wish is that for whoever reads this post that he or she will remove whatever is blocking them from coming to know the Lord, or will return to His arms and allow Him to break down the walls you may have placed around your heart. Without Jesus in my life, I really don’t know where I would be today, and I have a strong inclination it would not be on this side of the earth. And I give all the praise to Jesus for each breath I continue to breathe.
I pray you have a blessed Christmas with Jesus Christ at the center of your celebrations!
Mirror, Mirror 