Sin as choice, not a label
Mar 19th, 2008 by spaceagesage
In this day of political correctness, the idea of sin or sinning is viewed as a bit harsh and intolerant. I think mainly because most of the people judgmentally calling other people sinners really need a closer look at their own lives. Nobody likes hypocrisy. Nobody.
The funny thing is, sin has been made out to be something it is not. Sin is often viewed as a label for an action that some authority — like God, pastors, the Bible – has deemed “bad.” This viewpoint goes like this: If I tell the truth and treat others right, God will see I am good and allow me into heaven. If I tell a lie or treat others badly, God will see I am bad and send me to hell.
Well, quite frankly, that viewpoint makes God nothing more than a rule maker bent on giving out rewards or punishments. No wonder so many want to run the other way. Who wants a relationship with a being who has a whip in one hand and a carrot in the other?
After trying to live that way of relating to God, and not having a whole lot of fun with it, I realized God is not like that. It took Dr. Wayne Dyer’s explanation of what he calls Intention (an omnipresent, universal force or God or Source or Higher Power) to make me see an entirely different side of God. I don’t agree with Dyer in that I see God as a lot more personal and interactive than he does, but still, Dyer sees God far beyond the good cop, bad cop image that religion often wants to put on the Creator.
In his book, The Power of Intention, Dyer writes about the seven faces of Intention being Creativity, Kindness, Beauty, Love, Expansiveness, Abundance, and Receptivity. He explains by aligning oneself with these aspects of Intention a person can be more of all those – as long as the ego is kept out of the picture. According to Dyer, Intention cannot be grasped at desperately or hungrily. It can only be allowed, yielded to or followed.
What struck me about Dyer’s insights was 1) being able to see God fully as creative, kind, beautiful, loving, ever fruitful, and ever extending his grace, and 2) how sane it is to embrace those aspects of God. For example, when I embrace the idea of kindness fully, there is no room for unkindness. When I embrace the idea of seeing beauty in everything, everyone, and every situation, life itself changes. When I let creativity flow instead of trying to control it, the words come with more grace.
Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay and others believe that you can heal your own heart, move out of your negativity, and transform past issues into wisdom by merely embracing the essence and ideals of an omnipresent, universal force so as to “Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life,” which is the title of Dyer’s latest book. I agree that tremendous and mind-boggling insight, change, and betterment can come from their perspectives on the subject of changing the human heart. I have changed my life dramatically because of their books, and they have helped me see God in a fullness I had not known.
However, I am old school. I believe God designed humans with a connecting port so we could link up with him and not just the universal, omnipresent force. I think God is the creator of that force and of much of the wisdom behind the Tao. I call that force “Spiritual Physics” or “The Nature of Things.” I believe Dyer and Hay miss the boat in understanding the individual personality of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In Star Wars, Luke learned to become one with The Force, but it was his relationship with the dead and resurrected spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi that made The Force a reality for the young Jedi.
I have found my connection to God or to his Nature of Things only works for the positive when I put him in charge, admit to him that his way is the only worthwhile way, and yield to all that he is. There is a wholeness, a completeness, a supercharged energy I feel in my life that comes from embracing the world with a love that unfolds only after I yield to God and I allow his Nature of Things to flow. Clarity becomes a warming of the heart. Contentment settles the soul. Joy fires spirit. Forgiveness heals the brokenness. Generosity opens the eyes.
For me, the concept of sin isn’t something held over my head as a threat of punishment. Sin isn’t about right and wrong, good and bad. Those are labels. Sin is a way for God to express to me that there are two directions, two choices, or two paths and that they have consequences. At the end of the Indiana Jones movie The Last Crusade, the Grail Knight says, with an underlying metaphor, “But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.”
In my life, I want to see that old Knight look at me, smile, and say, “You have chosen wisely.”
Wow, I really like what you said here. I am a firm believer in a kind, loving God, however, that doesn’t mean that because I believe that everything i encounter will be happy and joyful. Jesus says that in order for us to be forgiven we must forgive others. He doesn’t, however, say that we have to keep ourselves in a bad situation or around bad people because we have to forgive the wrongs done to us. Forgiving others only really helps us let go of the anger or sadness, it truly does less for the ‘forgiven’ party. The same goes for our actions. Sin is definitely a choice. Just like believing in God is a choice. He does not want to force us to love him. It wouldn’t matter as much then.
Thanks for the great read!