Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Keeping the Lid Capped on Sin?

Here is something to ponder.  When you make a plan, when you come up with a scheme to "fix" things, are you trying to prevent sin or are you trying to lessen its impact.  The first is folly, the second is love.

I will often read various plans and dreams, the solutions given on how to fix things -- families, the country, churches, the synod -- and so many of them seem to be focused on cutting off sin, trying to make the rules set up in such a way where sin can't happen.  It's like trying to keep the lid capped on sin -- if only we put pressure on the lid this way, sin won't pop out!  If only we have the right law, things will never blow up and out of whack.

That's a false dream.  When you make a plan you must remember this - in a sinful world things will always mess up.  Sin will always happen.  No plan can plan away sin.

Therefore, when you plan, don't plan to try to prevent or hinder sin completely -- make your plans so that the ripple effect, the explosions that will surely come are quickly contained, so that they do less damage. 

What does that mean?  Well, consider the plan you make - is it for how to make things work right, or is it for how to make things easy to clean up?  Is it designed to turn a messed up world into someplace that isn't messed up, or is it designed to fix and care for things once they get messed up as they surely will?

Are they focused on forcing folks to play and act nice -- or are they focused on absolution and restoration?

You can't keep the lid capped on sin - if that is your plan, well, it's going to blow up in your face.

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