Sin

 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7)

 
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 13:3)

          Yesterday’s reading in Soul Keeping was about sin and the soul. There wasn’t anything new in what I read. Here is Professor Willard’s diagram of the soul again for convenience.

          Mr. Ortberg’s main point is something I’ve shared before: sin separates. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone. It’s even touched on in the Harry Potter books of all places! Harry is told that murder rips a soul apart. It’s easy to see how murder rips the soul of the victim apart because it destroys the body. But J.K. Rowling, Professor Willard, and John Ortberg are correct. Let’s continue using murder as the example. When you murder someone, you separate them from everyone else. You also separate yourself from everyone else. You either have to hide what you’ve done from others, or you have to prove how it is that you – apart from all other people – are justified in what you did. You can no longer be trusted by others, who have reason to be concerned about whether or not you will kill them. Even to want to kill someone requires that you separate yourself from the someone and you separate yourself from that part of you that knows it’s wrong.

          The same holds true of “lesser” sins. The part of me that wants to eat something I know isn’t healthy separates itself from the part of me that knows better, and instead of discussing the matter and coming to a response that will benefit my heart, my mind, my body, and my soul, my body (for example) says “Shut up!” and shoves that tasty oversized whatever into my mouth. It’s like trying to take a piece of something the dog has found along the road away from her! “Mine!”  I growl.

          There are so many things to think about this. Am I enough aware to know when some part has separated itself – has sinned against me? How do I figure out which part of me had separated itself? The goal isn’t to learn to beat each part of myself into submission, but how do I figure out whether there is a real need and what it is? I don’t have answers – yet. Maybe you do. If so, feel free to share.