On The Nature Of Sin

I have been pondering on your question about sin. The process has caused me to organize my thoughts on the subject, and for that I thank you.

Here’s what I think, emphasis on what I think. This is my opinion, and it may or may not reflect accepted dogma. It may not even be right. But it seems to fit the evidence as I have experienced it.

We learned from Kimberly Zink and John Edwards, or earlier, that “every moment is a choice, and every choice has costs and benefits.” I believe that statement to be true, as far as it goes. What we often do not take into account is the fact that all our choices are interrelated. We tend to look at our choices as affecting ourselves and do not look at the effects they have on others. Some of the more empathetic of us can view our choices in light of the effects they have on our close family members or close co-workers, but I think very few ever consider that all of our choices are connected to all the choices available to everybody else in the world. Thus, a choice I make today in Scottsdale, Arizona affects Dean in Idaho Falls, Idaho but it also affects a pregnant mother in Nice, France and a ten year old boy in Taipei, Taiwan, and everyone else in the world. Conversely, a choice made by a factory worker in Turkey affects the choice set available to me and to you and the French lady, and so on.

This set of choices, available moment by moment to billions of people in the world, is so huge that we humans cannot even begin to comprehend it. But God can. Not only can He comprehend it, He can synthesize it and integrate it and see, moment by moment, the best possible outcome for all the choices. In His love for us, He then advises us, counsels us, on what the best selection for us will be. He does not compel us or order us to choose a certain way; He has given us freedom to choose and in His steadfast love He will not renege on His promise, but He does give us the benefit of His counsel. We hear it, I think, as the “still, small voice” that speaks to us from somewhere back behind the conscious portion of our brains.

The problem with all of this, of course, is that we don’t always listen. Let me rephrase that: I don’t always listen. I won’t speak for you but I must confess that I frequently listen to my desires of the moment, or to my fears, or to my programs, or even to the Evil One, rather than to the wise counsel of God. And when I do that, I am sure that God must be disappointed in me. He gave me talent, He gave me intelligence, He gives me good advice and I don’t even listen? How disappointing is that?

All of this takes me away from the face of God; it alienates me, it estranges me, to my own detriment. It is my loss and it is my own doing. That, my friend, is sin.

To be sure, none of these is a heinous act. I am not an axe murderer, I am not a rapist, I am not a homicide bomber. I don’t even rob convenience stores or run red lights. But I do commit small transgressions, small errors that estrange me from the glory of God. And I do that out of fear, out of pride, or anger or whatever, even when God has counseled me otherwise. The problem with this is that if I can’t be trusted with the small things, how can I be trusted with the big things?

Our Anglican liturgy includes a prayer called the Confession of Sin. Since our liturgy was taken largely from yours, I imagine you have a similar prayer. Ours reads in part that we have sinned against God “…by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you [God} with our whole heart; We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”

These words are followed by words of repentance and a request for forgiveness. The good news is that God does forgive us; when I err and fall short of the glory of God, my Lord Jesus Christ lifts the burden of my transgressions from me so that I can once again start off fresh. Not that I have earned this forgiveness but it is grace, freely given by God through His son Jesus Christ. 

Thanks be to God.

Dreaming

The other evening I had the opportunity to attend a Klemmer & Associates Champions Workshop, this one facilitated by Scott Pullan. Scott did the workshop as well as I have ever seen it done, including one that I attended facilitated by Brian Klemmer.

One of the subjects Scott covered so aptly was the subect of dreaming. As I sat there listening to the discussion I realized that I don't have any well-defined dreams; what is up with that? I allowed myself to roam free for a few minutes and a dream popped into my consciousness, one that is so far "out there" that it only qualifies to be, well, a dream!

I have been mulling it over between then and now and the more I associate with it, the better I like it. The only "problem" I can see with it is that it lies well outside the bounds of probability (though not outside the bounds of possibility); it occurs to me that dreams don't have to be fettered by probability.

Another thing that occurs to me is that unless I create some change in myself, I won't get to have this dream. The dream is great but for it to come to pass, some action from me is required. What I have been doing up to now is not enough, based on results.

Knowing that creating a change in me can lead to this new dream is exciting and inspiring! Having a great big reward out there gives me great incentive to go forward!

I have been around the K&A track a number of times but this is the first time I have really gotten involved in this activity called dreaming. I highly recommend it.

Excellence

First off, excellence is not perfection; perfection is God’s business. Let’s be clear about that right up front.

Rather, excellence is simply me being the best I can be, moment by moment, knowing full well that the best I can be in any one moment may be better, or worse, than I can be in any other. And being okay with that, too.

You Create What You Believe

“You don’t create what you want, you create what you believe.”

~Brian Miller

If this is true, and I suspect it is because Brian Miller is one of the smartest guys I know about this sort of thing, then this is an excellent reason for having a coach or a mastermind.

Consider: if there’s something you say you want but you don’t have it, we can pretty well conclude that you don’t believe you should have it. That implies either a) you don’t really want it or b) you want something else more, such as not being afraid, staying comfortable or not straying outside the boundaries your programs have set for you.

Your coach and/or the members of your mastermind, because their backgrounds are different from yours, do not share your particular fears, devotion to comfort or set of programs. To be sure, they probably have their own set of limiters, but since those are different from yours, your coach and/or mastermind members can assist you in overcoming your obstacles. Literally, what appears to be a huge obstacle to you may not be anywhere so daunting to them and they can assist you in moving over, under, around or through it.

Your coach is skilled in helping you create solutions. He or she will help you find the answers you almost certainly already possess, if only you are willing to do the digging to ferret them out.

So the solution is right there in front of you. Of course, this assumes you believe in yourself enough to get off your butt and get involved with people who can help you make your dreams come true.

Context

Would you rather be "confident and excited" or "not disappointed?" The way you answer that question may have a lot to do with the context you are creating for your life. You do get to choose, you know.

East from West

In speaking of the breadth of the grace of God, Psalm 103 refers to ". . . as far as the east is from the west, . . ." Notice that if someone goes north long enough, sooner or later he starts going south. This, however, is not the case with going east or west; one can go east forever and never wind up going west.

How did the psalmist know this? By tradition, the Psalms were written by King David, who lived some time during the 10th century BC. At that time there was no knowledge of the shape of the world, so how could the psalmist have known that east and west never meet?

This is not the only place in the Scripture where the distance between east and west is mentioned. The distance between north and south is not mentioned. Interesting that the ancient Israelites possessed this kind of knowledge.

Of Problems, Solutions and Gifts

“There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.” ~from Illusions, by Richard Bach.

I might mildly disagree with Mr. Bach and say that I seek problems because I want their gifts rather than need their gifts, but I think that may reflect my bias toward responsible (want implies the availability of choices) rather than victim (need implies the absence of choices). That being said, this is a fairly profound statement.

I cannot speak for you, dear reader, but I know that when I am confronted with a problem I have a tendency to act a little huffy, a little put-upon (as in, "Oh, why me?") and then I go and solve the problem, perhaps completely missing the gift hidden within.

At the very least the act of solving a problem makes me feel better about me. It can surely be said, "You can't solve a problem until you have a problem." I am good at creating solutions to problems and the successful application of my creativity is always good for my self-esteem. That itself may be the gift, or a gift.

As a life coach I say that I help people create solutions that improve their lives. It now occurs to me, results-oriented creature that I am, that gifts may be found in the process of creating solutions and not just in the solutions themselves.

Think about that one for a while. I will be.

Who Uses A Coach?

Who in our culture uses a coach? Well, let's see. Everyone from Little League baseball players to professional athletes of all types and stripes. Actors and public speakers. People who have important goals to achieve in their lives.

In short, anyone who wants to improve some facet in his or her life uses a coach!

Why is having a coach valuable? It has to do with a principle called synergy, where one plus one adds up to more than two. To be sure, the coach may teach the person some "how to's" but of at least equal importance, the coach will inspire the person to greater heights and will hold the person accountable to overcome greater challenges than he or she could do alone.

We all like to look up to very successful people. What do they largely have in common? They tap into the power of synergy by using the skills of a coach as a multiplier for their own skills to achieve goals that are important to them.

Do you have important goals to achieve in your life? If so,what are you going to do about them?

Intention vs. Expectation

I have my goal, it's a good goal, a S.M.A.R.T. goal, and I am off and running to achieve it! However, at some point in the execution phase, I find myself stuck and not making any progress. It's possible I have crossed over from intention to expectation. When I am in intention, I am focused on the outcome I want to create; when I am in expectation, I am more focused on the process I am employing, a strategy that may not be helpful.

Here's an example: Let's say that my intention is to go to New York and view the Statue of Liberty. Sort of a priori I think the way I would go would be to drive to Manhattan and then go all the way to the southern tip of the island, to Battery Park, whence I can look out across New York Harbor and see the Statue.

So I get out my trusty Google Maps and create my route. My plan is to drive north out of the Phoenix area, where I live, to Flagstaff where I pick up Interstate 40. I follow I40 east to Oklahoma City, where I transition to I44; I take I44 to St. Louis, where I pick up Interstate 70. I stay on I70 through Indianapolis and Columbus, all the way to Harrisburg, where I78 is my new route. I stay on I78 all the way into New Jersey and, indeed, I78 ends in Jersey City just a few blocks from the Holland Tunnel. I cross under the Hudson River to Manhattan Island via the Holland Tunnel, turn right and run on down to Battery Park. There's the Statue, out there in the harbor. That's my plan and that's the way I expect to go.

However, as I am cruising through St. Louis, approaching the Mississippi River, I notice a sign that informs me that the I44 bridge across the Mississippi River is closed for some indeterminate period of time.

If I am in expectation thinking, that is, my journey has to go the way I expect it to go, I will be stuck at that point until the bridge reopens. On the other hand, if I am in intention thinking, that is, keeping foremost in my mind that my intention is to get to New York and view the Statue of Liberty, I won't care which bridge I cross the river on. I will juke north or south to find an open bridge and I will keep on moving east in my quest for my goal!

Thus, intention thinking keeps me focused on the outcome I want to create without getting bogged down with the process having to look a certain way. I can adjust the process as I need to en route to compensate for unexpected changes. If my mindset is that the process or mechanism has to look a certain way, it's likely that I will get stuck as soon as life deviates from my plan.

Notice also that as I am in New Jersey cruising north on I78, which in this neck of the woods is called the New Jersey Turnpike, I can see Liberty Island off to my right out in the harbor. If I get off at Liberty State Park I can go right to the water's edge and see the Statue from a whole lot closer vantage point than Battery Park. So even the outcome doesn't have to look like I expected it to!

A Different Set of the 3 R's

We all know about the 3R's: Resentment, Resistance, and Revenge. How about another set of 3R's that would be useful to get out of the regular 3R's? These might just be: Review, Release, Renew.
 
Review
Take stock of where I am in this situation. First of all, I have to be aware that I'm in the 3R's if I'm to hope to get out. Then be aware of what's going on for me. And be honest about it, even brutally honest. It's never a good idea to lie to other people; it's infinitely worse to lie to myself. Be aware of how my perspective of what's going on is affecting my reaction to the situation. It's very likely that the story I made up about what happened is what's driving my resentment. If I recast the story so that it's positive for me, I may be able to change my whole perspective.

Release
Let go of the animosity; release the negative energy. My choice to be in the 3R's is costing somebody something; it's likely that the person who's paying the biggest price is me! When I bring my energy down, all of a sudden I am open to all kinds of new possibilities. At this point it becomes possible to forgive. And by forgive I don't necessarily mean the 21st Century version of forgiveness, where there's total reconciliation and everything is all lovey-dovey. I'm referring to the Biblical notion of forgiveness, where to forgive means to release an obligation. In Biblical Israel, up to and including the time of Jesus, when one person wronged another, an obligation was presumed to have been created, such that the "wrongor" had to "make it up" to the "wrongee." To forgive was for the "wrongee" to release the "wrongor" from this obligation, this debt. Notice that some translations of The Lord's Prayer say "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." That's not a reference to somebody owing someone some money; it refers to releasing the obligations to God and to others created by someone's transgressions. Note also that there's nothing here that says I have to be friends with the person I have forgiven. Releasing the obligation is principally about restoring my harmony.

Renew
Set about rebuilding the relationship, in the full knowledge that it may never be the same as it was before. This is where open, honest, responsible communication comes in handy. At the very least I can get clean with what went on so that I can go forward in the most positive manner for me.

And finally, it’s likely that there’s a fourth R: Reapply. Like sun block that wears off and needs to be reapplied, these 3R’s may need to be reapplied frequently.

Sustained Commitment

The third key is sustained commitment. As Sir Winston Churchill once famously said, "Never, ever, ever give up!" When a person is truly, irrevocably committed to a goal, it's only a matter of time until he or she achieves the goal. Too often people give up or give in to their programs before they have achieved their goals, even when success may be close within reach. The only way to fail is to give up; "Never, ever, ever give up!"

Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility is the second key. As I understand that the choices I make contribute to virtually every event that occurs in my life, I am able to exercise greater control over those events. This perspective empowers me to review what happens to me and if I don't like it, to choose differently the next time to create the result I want. Even if the event is positive, I still may want to make a different choice to create an even better outcome! Personal responsibility gives me that power.

Self Awareness

Self-awareness is the first key. Self-awareness is my ability to recognize my emotional state (and maybe my physical state, too) at any given moment. When I am able to check in to what’s going on for me, I empower myself to choose consciously how I will act, rather than defaulting to allowing my programs (many of which serve me, but some of which do not) to choose for me automatically.

Abundance: The belief that your wholeness and completion have nothing to do with external circumstances.
Scarcity: The notion there is not enough, usually based on the notion you are not enough.
~Angi Moormann