Tangles

Every morning before heading off to school, Isabella and I sit down to brush her hair and fix it so that it's out of her face. And more often than not, whether its from sleeping hard or food she got in her hair while eating, it's inevitable that she has tangles in her hair.

It's funny, though. I don't normally think of brushing the tangles out of Isabella's hair as an object lesson, but today Isabella said something that really caught my attention.

"Can we just leave them alone?"

It's an innocent question, but one that is definitely worth pondering. See, as inevitable as it is that she will have tangles in her hair, it's just as inevitable that she won't like it when I brush them out.

"It hurts!" she says and runs away from me.

I know it hurts. But I also know it'll hurt worse if I don't brush them out. The tangles will get tangles, even to the point of getting knots, and that hair session will be practically unbearable - not to mention how Isabella might feel about it!

Her question made me wonder whether or not I had ever used that same excuse with God. Maybe I'm spending time with Him, praying, reading the Bible, and I feel convicted of a particular sin.

"Can we just leave that alone?" God convicts me even more. He starts to carve away at that area of my life.

"It hurts!" I say and run away from Him.

Of course it hurts - removing sin is never painless. Growing in holiness is like carving a log down to a beautifully designed figurine. The deeper the cuts, the more progress you make. The more detailed the carving, the more time it takes to sand down the rough edges.

I'm sure that God could leave our sin alone. He could definitely leave us to our own devices. And He does at times if we insist on rejecting Him. But, the sin will get worse. And the process of cutting it away will be even more painful as a result.

So, what does all this rambling mean? Well, for me, it means that I've been thinking a lot lately about a certain passage in the Bible - Colossians 3:1-10, especially verse 5 - and this morning was just the reminder for me that I can't just think about those verses. When I'm confronted with truth, I must also act on that truth. And what is that truth?

If we are in Christ, then we must not excuse or ignore sin. We must kill it.
          Without mercy.
                    Without delay.

To delay is only to make it worse later. To excuse it is to ignore God's standard for holiness. And neither is acceptable in God's eyes. Over and over God tells us in His Word that we are to "be holy as I AM holy." That means every day is a choice - to give in to sin or to kill sin.

What will you choose today?

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That you might know Christ,