Where Sin Runs Deep

The internet is a scary place. Now, you have accessed this blog through the internet, and hopefully you don't view that as a bad thing... But let's use this blog as an example. These are my words, but I have put them on the internet. Now you and everyone else in the world can read them. I can delete them, but they won't really go away. You will have read them, and they will be permanently stored somewhere in cyberspace.

Words are a scary concept. Various arrangements of the same twenty-six letters build us up and tear us down so quickly and easily. Word vomit happens, and you can't take it back, and you may have just destroyed a life with those words. You can crush self esteem, end friendships, break hearts, and totally lay waste to lives.

The internet is just a big cloud of these words, sitting here saying things to us and about us. The words on the internet can criticize our race, our gender, our politics, our actions, our faith. That's what everything comes down to: our faith. We all believe in something, and none of us wants anything said to hit close to home. But one of the scary things about the internet is that it always does.

Right now, people everywhere are hurting because of today's tweets, posts, and headlines. Right now, people everywhere are confused, angry, sad, and even apathetic. Right now, that might be you. If that is you, dear reader, I pray that you will hear what I am about to say.

From the national television to the lunch table at school, Christianity takes a lot of heat these days. Someone makes a mistake and naturally, a lot of unanswerable questions arise. Is there a God? If so, why did he let this happen? How could a Christian do that?

We could have a walk-through on apologetics, but I will be honest with you and say you might not find the answer to your questions there. You might not find them anywhere. But I can guarantee that if you are looking for answers in a person here on Earth, you aren't going to find them. Because here on Earth, we are not free from the presence of sin. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. That exempts a sum total of one: God himself. That, dear reader, is the gospel. That we couldn't be perfect. We couldn't attain righteousness. And Romans 6:23 says that the consequence of that is death- permanent death. Separation from God. But Ephesians 2:4-9 says that God sent Jesus and only through him are we saved. Only by faith are we made righteous.

That said, it is obvious that we still sin. We still mess up. There are two responses when that happens: we can run from God, or we can run to him. We can say that God must be angry or that he is too confusing or lofty or that we just flat out don't love him, and we can run. Hear me when I say to you that this will never satisfy. The farther we run, the emptier we will feel because we were made to love something greater than ourselves. Our only other option then, is to run to Jesus. Oh, I pray that you would today.

The simple fact of the matter is that there are some things we just cannot understand. I promise you that there is nothing more comforting than to throw your hands up and acknowledge it. It's okay to be honest with God, because he knows your heart right now. It's okay to tell him you are angry or confused or hurt, because he knows. He isn't surprised or angry. He loves you. He came down to Earth to die on the cross for you. He didn't come with the promise that things would be easy or fun; in fact he promised that they wouldn't be. And that's obvious in our lives today. But oh how he loves you in the midst of that. Romans 8:28 says that he is working all things together for your good, and you need to understand that he means that in the eternal sense because he is eternal and he loves you eternally.

Words can still hurt. Tweets, posts, and headlines can still shock and destroy. To say that it shouldn't affect you would be cliche and false. But when you are shocked, confused, hurt... When you don't know where else to go or what else to do, run to Jesus. You may not find answers, but you will find peace.

"And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you." --Psalm 9:10