The Dirtiest Word, Part Two

(Continued from Nov. 1)
You probably know someone whose anger with God is so great that even the word 'God' offends them.  So great is the hurt inflicted by a church that dismisses our suffering as pleasing to some great rigid God-Judge whose anger must be continually appeased through punishment or even eternal condemnation.

This idea does not resonate with us as a true depiction of Loving Creator. If God loves us, then it stands to reason that God's love is deeper and purer than ours, tainted as it is by our own self-interest.  That being the case, we matter to Loving Creator not as fellow sufferers with Christ but as fellow children of God.  Rather than lowly, unworthy beings, we are beloved children.

Even beloved children can sin, however.  We are, after all, beloved human children subject to the tug of our understandings, emotions, and desires.  The various pains of human life are hard to ignore, as well, and all these aspects of our humanity drive us to words and actions that are unloving at times, actions that are unworthy of us as Children of God.

Occasionally, we find ourselves in situations so painful that we forget our true identity as God's own.  We may respond to such troubling circumstances with actual malice and perhaps even anger to the point of hatred.  Our hurt may be so intense that, having moved from alignment with Love, we find relief only in unloving, hurtful behavior.

We may say harsh things that wound others.  We may take what is not ours.  We may refuse to admit the truth or tell deliberate untruths.  We may brood over our hurt and grow sullen and bitter and become sour on life. Perhaps we direct our unhappiness toward Creator, rejecting God who has not answered a prayer or transformed a situation to our satisfaction. 

In short, these human responses so unlike Love are what we call sin.  They do not make us horrible beings worthy only of death; they are reflections of our humanity in action.  We can call them lessons or mistakes, if the word 'sin' is so abhorrent to us, but that does not change the truth that sin exists.

So if sin exists, what do we do about it?