Last fall, my cousin Mike and his wife Christy-Ann purchased a new home. After being married over 10 years, this is the first home that they’ve owned. Mike is a pilot and a Major in the Army. We are all very proud of him. They have lived in 7 different places over the course of their marriage but are blessed right now to be able to stay put for a few years while Mike attends school and has additional training. Not only can they stay put, they are in close proximity to both sides of their family.
When I was visiting them recently Christy-Ann told me a very convicting story. Mike & Christy-Ann are a young couple with a three year old son named Sam. Like I said, they have lived a lot of different places across the globe. They moved to their new home right before Thanksgiving so Christy-Ann decided to make a small pumpkin loaf for each of her surrounding neighbors. Across the street they have a very sweet elderly couple. When the first snow of the season hit (the first weekend in December), it crossed her mind that she should probably help the older couple shovel their driveway. But then she thought if she got started with that then she’d be shoveling during every snowfall for the next three years. Then Mike was leaving to pick up some things from their old house and, after scraping off his windshield, he looked over and thought “I should probably help them, but I have to leave.” Mike and Christy-Ann were both convicted (independently) to help out and didn’t. Christy-Ann admitted that it was her selfish nature that convinced her not to help out. She just didn’t want to get involved.
As it turned out, probably only 5 minutes after Mike left, the elderly wife fell and broke her pelvis! She was in the hospital until past Christmas. You can imagine how Mike and Christy-Ann felt. While the elderly lady was recuperating, Christy-Ann and Sam visited the husband to keep him company. You can believe that every snow after that they helped out. And they had plenty of opportunities since the blizzard of 2010 occurred not long after!!
I’m sure all of us have had similar circumstances where we know we should do something but don’t. Perhaps ignoring these promptings didn’t have quite as dramatic results but I’m sure if the situation crossed your mind again you may have had pangs of guilt.
We are not alone. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with this very thing. He wrote this in his letter to the Romans:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it”.
Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)
You may have to read that through a few times slowly because it can be confusing. Paul explains that we don’t do what we should and we do what we shouldn’t because of our sin nature.
Here is another passage that fits, again from Paul, in his letter to the Philippians:
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
Philippians 2:4-11 (ESV) emphasis mine
Verse 4 is really what I thought was interesting to this story (highlighted) but I couldn’t stop there because the good news is found in the following verses. As believers, we need not wallow in self-loathing or guilt because of our sin. Jesus has already paid for every sin ever committed on the cross. We should learn from our sin, ask for forgiveness, try to never repeat it, and then rest in the mercy of God.
May God’s “mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.” Jude 2
Have a great day!
Melanie