When the Good is the Bad
This weekend I was doing yard work around the house when I discovered a snake skin. The thought of having a snake crawling around near the house is not something that thrills me. As I was trying to comfort myself about the snake skin, I found myself saying well its only a small one, it is not a big deal. Then a thought hit me, if I found where the snake had shed its skin, that means the snake is getting bigger. So the good news about finding a small snake skin was really a sign that there is now a bigger snake slithering around the yard somewhere.
Well having a garter snake around is probably not that big of a deal, but it brought to mind something else. I thought about how often we have little sins in our lives and don’t really think of them as a big deal. We might have little casual sins that don’t really seem like a big deal, but they usually lead to bigger sins over time. As we get adjusted to having little sins and gain a comfort level with sin, soon we find ourselves with a new standard for what is sinful and what is not. Much like the snake that is out grown its current skin our tolerance for sin will grow. The evidence that our tolerance has grown is the little sins we ignore. The problem with a growing tolerance is that we are setting our own standard for sin rather than using the standard God has given us in the Bible.
So what are you little sins? Are there little things that you just blow off as harmless? Those are the indicators that you are growing comfortable with your sin nature. Soon you will out grow your current tolerance and soon find your self doing things that you once felt unthinkable. People tell me that spreading moth balls around the foundation will keep snakes away from the house. So I will probably do that and try to prevent having a snake problem. That is probably good advice for sin as well. Do something to stop the problem before it has a chance to grow and become a big issue.
For discussion: Name some small sins that people just casually ignore.
