We just began a new teaching series at New Hope Community. It is called “The Story of Us.” Last week was the first Sunday, and we were talking about “Chapter 1: Creation.” Creation was a fun topic. We looked at the enormity of this universe that God made. We glanced at the intricacy of the universe—the fact that God paid attention to the smallest detail in what he made. And we looked that the role of humanity in God’s creation as his vice-rulers and co-creators. Good stuff! 

     This week I have been preparing for the second message, which is on “Crisis.” (It's amazing how quickly humanity moved from "Creation" to "Crisis," isn't it?) This message is all about sin entering the world and its effects. The result of preparing for this message is that I have been thinking more about sin this week than I might during a typical week. As I have considered God’s good creation and then the sin in the world, it has amazed me how very pervasive the effects of sin are. Truly Adam and Eve’s disobedience has affected the whole created order.

     I think sin affects us on at least three levels. First, there are the intra-personal effects of sin. Part of the curse in Genesis 3 was that we would return to the dust from which we were formed ("dust to dust"). In other words, after we fully mature, our bodies become weaker and weaker until we die, and we are always vulnerable to disease, injury, and death. Indeed, I have been reminded this week just how very fragile our physical lives are. Disease, sickness, death, and decay are all results of sin that affect us very personally.

     Another dimension of sin’s effects is inter-personal. It comes as no surprise that sin affects the way we relate to other people. This was also part of the curse in Genesis 3. When the Lord God said that the woman’s desire would be for her husband and that he would rule over her, he was saying that their relationship would change dramatically for the worse because of their sin. I have been very burdened lately reading and hearing about slavery around the world. Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with a gentleman in Uganda named David Kamanzi. He and his wife, Esther, have been ministering to six young girls (ages 12-15) who are in forced prostitution. (Accompanying this post is a photo of some of these girls along with their children (Yes, they have children…and AIDS, too.). I am putting this photo here because it makes them real people to me.) How is it that one human being can commit a crime so monstruous against another human being? But then I wonder how it is that I can stand by and do so little to stop atrocities like this between people. The effects of sin between one person and another can hardly be overstated.

     Finally, sin affects the natural order, and there are droughts and earthquakes and other “natural disasters.” These things were not a part of God’s perfect creation. In the beginning, people took care of the world, and the world took care of them. No longer is this true. Now people disregard the world and the world is a very dangerous place. I was reminded of this again this week as I heard at a meeting on Tuesday just how very dire the situation in Haiti is. A gentleman at the meeting I was at spoke about how he was supposed to go to Haiti on the 20^th of this month, but his trip was canceled because of how bad things are there. No doubt you’ve seen scores of photos of the devastation, and this, too, was caused by sin’s effects on the creation.

     As I have reflected on sin, I have become deeply sad…and mad! Some aspects of sin’s effects just make me ANGRY. Why should people suffer as these girls in Uganda suffer at the hands of another human being? Other aspects make me sad, like when I hear about someone with a serious illness. Then it hit me. I think that God feels the same way about sin. I think it makes him very sad and also very mad (more sad and more mad than it makes me for sure). We’re like rebel teenagers shaking our fists at a loving God who wants so badly to bless us and to have us return home to him through his Son, Jesus. And this thought about God makes me realize that there is no such thing as a small sin—“little” white lies make God sad and mad, too. And even my “little” sins contribute to making this world such a mess.