On calling it a mistake

"I yelled at my wife.  I told her she was stupid right in front of my kids.  I knew it was wrorng, but I lost my temper.  Then I had to tell them Daddy made a mistake." 

Those are the words I overheard as I was making my way by the cluster of people in the walkway.  It is not as though I was attempting to listen in to someone else's convesation.  He was sharing this with the small group gathered around him there publicly, and I could tell this man doesn't have exactly an "inside voice" normally.

All I could think of was this wasn't a mistake.  This was sin.  Using those words and that tone to his wife in front of his children was disrespectful and unloving to her and to them, and it was sin.  But he didn't see it that way; he just saw it as a mistake, like picking out brown shoes to go with black pants.  Mistakes don't offend God; mistakes may only mke us uncomfortable, but they aren't really all that serious.

Then I wondered how man times, I did the same thing.  Renamed a sin so it would be more tolerable, so I would be less uncomfortable, guilty.

Now, please don't think I am going to be one of those "you have to confess every sin to get them forgiven" people.  That's not the issue.  But when we minimize sin by calling it a mistake, when we don't acknowledge that we have offended God and his people, we miss the opportunity to renew or revive fellowship with God and others.  That unattended mistake piles up against others, like Peter's rejection of Christ, until we finally either get the message and are broken or, and more seriously, we harden our heart to the Spirit of God and become deaf to his entreaties, like the hard dry ground spoken of in Hebrews 3:13-15.  The word harden there has the sense of being hard like ground that has dried up and the rain can no longer penetrate it, but just runs uselessly off.

Calling sin a mistake is dangerous.  It is like missing the warning sign that the bridge is out, and we fall into a raging torrent.  How much more beautiful the outcome when we call sin by its name, when we go to God in confession, which is only saying the same thing about our behavior that he does.  In that moment of acknowledgement, we are seeing and saying that we know we missed the mark of holiness.  We hurt our God who longs for us to know peace and joy and love, and whether we call it a mistake or sin, our ungodly behavior robs us of love and joy and peace.  Our sin separates - us from the person we have offended and from fellowship with God.

So, all we have to do, is call a spade a spade.  Come before God, and others as needed, and say I see how I have offended you, how I have hurt you.  And say honestly, I am so sorry.  I am filled with regret.  I want to turn from this wrong behavior, even this pattern of offence (if that is the case), and then enjoy the restoration now possible.

For the believer, the penalty for our sin, the price of our sin, has been paid by Christ on the cross  Calling sin -sin, does not get us saved from the punishment of our sin.  Christ paid that price.  But it does restore communication and fellowship with God.  Oh, it is true there may be consequences, ripple effects of our sin, but don't see that as punishment. 

Oh God, I pray this morning, that you will help me to be sensitive to the waves I create with all of my behavior and all my words, that I might not sin against you.  And Father, help me to never fall into the trap of calling sin a mistake.