Our Sophisticated Hiding Places
As I enter my 40’s, I still enjoy playing hide-and-seek with my family. It’s especially fun at night, with all the lights turned off. Even in our small house, it’s amazing how hard it can be to find somebody who is using darkness to their advantage. Don’t tell my kids, but my best hiding spot is the top shelf in our entry way closet! Some dads would probably look terribly awkward climbing up there (and even more awkward trying to get back down), but I’m basically a ninja.
This morning, I was spending time with my 16th century friend, Richard Sibbes, and he reminded me of how skillful our world is when it comes to this game of hiding in the shadows. Yet, in this case, the stakes are infinitely higher. Instead of playing this game with our families, we are playing it with our hearts (and our eternity). Sibbes highlights “the sophistical shifts” that we use in order to cast the perfect shadow over our sin. Humans have a sophisticated way of justifying pretty much everything.
How often do we justify…
And the list goes on…
Sibbes writes, “There was never yet any careless sinful course, but it had the flesh to justify it with one reason or other.”
The solution (according to Sibbes) is to “labor then more and more to know the falsehood of our own disposition, and to know the truth of God.” In other words, we need to spend more time in the Bible and honest prayer (and maybe a little less time in social media and secular entertainment).
And lest you think I am standing on a soap box, I am simply recording what I saw in the mirror this morning.
This morning, I was spending time with my 16th century friend, Richard Sibbes, and he reminded me of how skillful our world is when it comes to this game of hiding in the shadows. Yet, in this case, the stakes are infinitely higher. Instead of playing this game with our families, we are playing it with our hearts (and our eternity). Sibbes highlights “the sophistical shifts” that we use in order to cast the perfect shadow over our sin. Humans have a sophisticated way of justifying pretty much everything.
How often do we justify…
- ignoring the homeless in the name of “caution”?
- violence in the name of “entertainment”?
- pornography in the name of “art”?
- immodesty in the name of “fashion”?
- not disciplining our children in the name of “compassion”?
- rage, riots, and revenge in the name of “justice”?
- arrogance in the name of “patriotism”?
- gossip in the name of “concern”?
- abortion in the name of “choice”?
- homosexuality in the name of “love”?
- fear in the name of “wisdom”?
- disobedience in the name of “it’s not my gift”?
- not having children in the name of “financial stewardship”?
- hurtful actions in the name of “stress”?
- prayerlessness in the name of “busy”?
- toxic rants in the name of “needing to vent”?
- bitterness in the name of “hurt”?
- laziness in the name of “rest”?
- judgmental attitudes towards others in the name of “truth”?
And the list goes on…
Sibbes writes, “There was never yet any careless sinful course, but it had the flesh to justify it with one reason or other.”
The solution (according to Sibbes) is to “labor then more and more to know the falsehood of our own disposition, and to know the truth of God.” In other words, we need to spend more time in the Bible and honest prayer (and maybe a little less time in social media and secular entertainment).
And lest you think I am standing on a soap box, I am simply recording what I saw in the mirror this morning.
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