Listing SIns

Have you ever made a list of your most prevalent sins?

This was thought that floated upward in my consciousness last night reviewing the days events, especially a conversation in which things which I had not thought would work their way to the surface appeared.  As I looked into my soul at the end of the day, the thought floated up "What is this indicative of?  And have you really thought about where it's coming from?"

Which lead me to try and list one prevalent sin, which lead to a list of five (well, six really).

The surprising thing to me was that as I made my list, I discovered the rather interesting thing that I seem to have become remarkably comfortable with my sins.  I say comfortable in the sense that as I made my list I went "Well of course that one is on there" and "Oh yes, let's add that one too.  I struggle with it awfully".

What I ended up was an indictment on two levels:  On one level, it pointed to the fact that have way more that six major sins in my life.  On another level, it pointed out how comfortable I have become with my sins, that I recognize and acknowledge them without really being impacted by them or concerned that they are still so prevalent in my life.

Have I become so comfortable with the thought of being a saved sinner that I have simply surrendered any intent of trying to eradicate the sin in my life?  That scares me if it's true, because that means that I have come to accept - nay, embrace - a certain amount of evil and failure in my own life.

Evil and failure.  Those are words that make me shudder as I write them, almost attempt to pull them down off the post.  It's not that I'm evil, I protest, it's merely that I'm a sinner who's saved.  Sinner has come to sound okay.  Evil is still stark.

But comfort is not the Christian's ultimate goal - nor should it be mine.  It's Christlikeness.  Will I sin free - never this side of death.  But can I deal more fully with the prevailing sins and move on to others?  By God's grace, it is possible.

But only if I realize that sin is something to be fought against, not lived with.