Customarily, I think a lot about life, its meaning, and how relationships can be either enhancing or destructive. Maybe my age is responsible for thinking about these issues more frequently than many others do. I don’t know.
Today, I woke up thinking about sin. If that is a subject you don’t want to consider, then go wash the car, take a walk, or eat a banana. Right now, sin, in its various forms, is on my thought paths. If you are willing to listen, I am willing to share some ideas.
To me, there are two kinds of sin. Sin involves some kind of deceit to ourselves and/or others. When someone misrepresents what they know, they are telling a lie. For example, if a person says that he or she can speak ten languages fluently and in reality, can only speak one language, and two or three words of several others, then a lie has been perpetrated.
Sometimes, lies of that type temporarily enhance self-esteem, until the lie is discovered. In the end, the falsehood quickly comes to light when someone who does speak one of those languages approaches the person and begins to try to converse, only to get a blank stare in return. I have personally encountered this kind of deceit twice in my life. The liar is embarrassed and the result of the encounter is an attempt to totally avoid the other person who is actually fluent in the language.
Another form of falsehood is deceit by action. When a person cheats on his or her spouse, chances are good that the truth will eventually come out. Dishonesty never pays off whether the action is illegally selling patterns to which you are not entitled, on eBay, or not providing full disclosure on your income tax form, or spreading information that is a personal attack on someone else that is simply not true.
In today’s world, part of the nastiness of “competition,” a word that I dislike, is the out and out willingness to be personally destructive by the perpetration of viciousness and unwarranted allegations. In groups, we call this being part of the closed circle, the clique, as it were. People like to feel exclusive and that they know “more than” someone else. Most often, they know “less than” the people they would criticize.
Sin is being uncharitable, but mostly, sin resides in telling ourselves that it is quite alright to only look out for our own selfish interests. Sin is sin because it hurts someone else or yourself. Human nature and what we “want” are not reliable indicators of what is good for us. The results can be unwanted babies, std’s, AIDS related cancer, and so many other rotten, terrible things that happen to us when we just “do” whatever we want, with no regard for the consequence.
Positive relationships are built on respect, on love, and on telling the truth. In my own life, I have experienced the worst and the best of marriages, and the worst and the best of relationships with relatives. Without respect, love, and truth as the components of interactions, admittedly, I have abandoned not one, but many relationships. I have zero tolerance for being treated poorly. On the other hand, with respect, love, and truth, safely in place, long term relationships are a breeze, and a joy!
Be truthful to yourself and to others. Falsifying any part of your life is a sin, and will result in unhappiness.
We are called to be all that we can be. Do yourself a favor. Do your best.
Patricia Cummings
