Wednesday, March 14, 2007

An open letter to my sin

Dear Sin,

We need to break up. You've brought me many hours worth of fun and good feelings. You've made me feel like a a rock star so many times, for awhile I thought I was one. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't know what mercy or forgiveness are. I wouldn't know what it means to have grace bestowed on me. But without you I wouldn't need any of those things. So I'm telling you this is the end. We have many better things we can do with our lives. You can go on influencing millions into the wide path to destruction, I've found someone new.

You can kind of say I've been cheating on you. I enjoyed our times together but, you see, you never satisfied me. I liked all the pleasure and highs that I got from you but they never lasted. You made me feel really awesome but then I felt really crappy. This other partner, well he doesn't do that to me. He treats me with respect. He doesn't always give me what I want but he does give me what I need. He gives me pure love, something I don't think you have a concept of. Sure you loved me, I know you did, but you never loved me enough to deny me anything that was ultimately bad for me. You just gave me everything and everything is too much.

Who is he? Well, to give you a hint, he created me, so he knows exactly the kind of love I need. He had so much patience for when I was with you. He let me see that you weren't going to keep me happy, even though it hurt me. He loves me that much. He could see that I would come back to him. Yes, back, I loved him before I loved you. In fact he loved me before I ever knew him. He wooed me before I knew I needed to be wooed. Then I followed your call and came running to you.

So please understand, I really liked our times together, but you need to leave. We need to never see each other, or talk to each other, or even think about each other. It will probably be hard on me, and I may come running to your arms again, but know that I won't ever stay with you. Your ultimate destiny is death. In fact you are dead, you just don't know it yet. So please stop calling me, stop writing me letters, sending me movies, and pictures, I'm done with you. I'm going to throw them all out so I won't be reminded of you.

Sin, I once loved you. I love another now, his name is Jesus.

rest in pieces,
-Dave

2 comments:

Nigel said...

Well done Dave. This gives the rest of us the courage to do the same...

Heathery said...

this reminds me of something I was realizing at (morning) church this past Sunday. As Father Bill was talking about how each of us are a character in the passion of Jesus, he mentioned Peter and his denials of Jesus and I was just struck by how he (Peter) needed that falling to really first receive and know the grace of God, to really understand what it means that we are saved by faith and that alone, through grace. How could he have ever been the rock of the church otherwise? For until that point, Peter was all bravado, stuck in himself and the weakness of his own strength. The grace of forgiveness and love he received after his denial, a denial the Lord knew was to occur creates in him the foundation for him to become the cornerstone of the church, the rock on which we are all built. Because he knows it was not him, but God alone. Your first few sentences/first paragraph really reminded me of that. I actually meant to share that with you anyway, so this works. :)