Can you imagine it?
I’ve been thinking lately, about how sin infects the world, effects me and effects everyone and everything around me.
I began to wonder…… what would a world be like without sin?
So I thought,
and I thought,
and I thought….
And I came to the realization that I am SO infected and permeated with it, that I can’t even imagine what a perfect world would look like.
We are corrupt to the core
How many of us, when thinking about the heaven God has prepared for us have had that horrible shameful thought that we don’t ever want to admit?
That it would get boring?
We are so corrupted by this world, we cannot even imagine what a perfect world would be like, except in negative terms: That is – what it Won’t have (death, pain, sickness, lying, murder, betrayal, abuse, stealing, etc.)
But to imagine what it Will have, that is beyond my comprehension.
I needed inspiration
I decided to do some searching, to check out some other articles or blogs to help me with my imagination. Maybe I would find something to trigger my mind to picture it.
Nothing.
It seems I’m not the only one that has a hard time with this. I basically found the same list of academic facts of what would be missing in a sinless world. I didn’t find any other inspiration to help my mind to see what it might really be like.
Wow. I’m even more corrupt in this body of flesh than I had imagined.
I should have known
God’s Word is true, no matter where I look. The reason I can’t imagine a perfect world, is because it is beyond the imagination of corrupt flesh. I will have to do the best I can within the understanding I can grasp in the here and now.
Only from the negative
I can understand the negative. My life is permeated with it. Just as blackness is the absence of light, so is sin. It is a void, the absence of good. The absence of beauty. The absence of love.
And how does sin manifest in our lives now, so that I can imagine the absence of it? I would have to start from within me.
Let it begin with me
When I wake up in the morning, if I fail to express the gratefulness for a new day, my natural inclination is to feel a sense of dread for what lies ahead.
I have lived in this world long enough to know that bad things happen sometimes. Painful things. I get sick, sometimes a misunderstanding happens in a relationship, I might hear about someone close to me being sick, or dying, or having a misfortune, or losing a job.
So what would it be like? Can I imagine if? If I woke up with a beautiful spirit of adventure, of a new day ahead with mysteries to explore and no fear of misfortunes to cloud my excitement. What would that be like?
What if neither I nor my loved ones could get sick or die? What if there were no fear of not having enough? enough food? enough clothing? enough friends? enough to occupy my mind and my time?
What if I never got bored?
No painful relationships
I’ve had painful broken relationships in this world with those I trusted to have my back. What would relationships without fear be like? What about guilt?
No competition
What would it be like not to compare or compete with others, knowing that nobody is trying to get one over on me, or use me, or look at me as insignificant?
Mutually enjoyable interactions
What if we all related to each other as equals. We saw all the beauty in each other and enjoyed perfect relationships. What if we didn’t worry about whether we had the right or wrong style of clothes or hair. What if none of us looked at each other in that shallow way at all? We could enjoy the uniqueness that we all have, the beauty, the purpose that God created in us.
Safe
What if we didn’t need to worry about climbing ladders and climbing over other people to get ahead? What if we could just be content, knowing that all we needed was right at hand. What if we felt safe and secure, that there were no killers or thieves out to harm us? What if everyone were completely trustworthy.
Do we even know what to do without the burden of distrust?
We might become a little bit light-headed.
Would we miss the guilt?
One of the worse things about sin is the guilt and shame. I grew up in a shame based environment. I’ve struggled all of my life, wanting to hide the shame of my differences. I’ve always struggled with whether I was enough. I wanted to be unique, to differentiate myself from the crowd. But when it came right down to living it out, I dropped the ball.
I know I’m not perfect, and I feel the sting of shame with each of my failures. When people look at me, do they see the mistakes I made with my children? That I wasn’t always the perfect spouse? That I am sometimes selfish?
I’ve caused pain for others
What if I could never accidentally hurt anyone again? What if I weren’t a coward sometimes and hide what I’m ashamed of doing? What if I didn’t worry that when someone asked me a question, they had found me out? What if people knew I sometimes think catty thoughts about others? Or that I just didn’t do what I should have because I didn’t feel like it today?
What if I were confident each morning when I woke up, that I could just be me? And that I am OK just the way I am?
Defining effects of sin
These are the characteristics of sin that most insidiously infect our lives.
- Fear
- Guilt
- Shame
- Pain
- Broken Relationships
- Sickness
- Death
- Immorality
- Abuse
- Hatred
- Conflict
We can’t seem to get away from these effects in the corrupt world we live in. I permeates the atmosphere and engulfs us in its poison.
Freedom from sin
I am so eternally grateful, that the Holy God who created the universe and everything in it, who created me for a purpose, sent Jesus His son to die in my place. To pay the price of sin, so I can be set free.
The more I surrender to His presence in my life, the weaker those effects of sin become. They aren’t eradicated yet, but He has promised that they will be.
And I can rest on His promises. He has never lied to me yet. But these promises are given to those who love God. He doesn’t force himself on anyone who doesn’t want Him, but all who surrender to His will and believe in Him can have all of the promises.