sin

[jana_cat]

So one of the girls I am starting to mentor told me the other day that she had been drinking (she's 16) and smoking pot. She had gotten really convicted about it and has been feeling awful ever since-- feeling like she let God down as an example, like she will never be able to influence her friends for good anymore, like her testimony is

Comments

Good for her

[gjpure]

OOOOOhhh Wow!! This is profound. I have fallen back on that DC Talk song many times. I hate the fact that I am a worthless sinner. I feel like such a looser sometimes and like I will never be the man God wants me to be. Like I have all this potential and I am not even close and I don't even have the faith I will get there. I know what this girl means that she feels like her testimony is comprimised. I have done and continue to do a lot of silly, sinful stuff. There is a lot of confusion and pain in my life over the last few years. I feel like I am incapable of meeting a good Christian girl because 1) and am not really a good Christian guy by my definition and 2) once this girl hears my story she will most likely run and judge me. And I wouldnt blame her. I just feel like I am doomed sometimes. It's a very frusterating and depressing thing. I never thought of myself as a depressed person before but I have come to terms with the fact that sometimes I simply don't love myself, which is even more depressing. Honesty is refreshing and

[jana_cat]

Hmmm. So I think it's CS Lewis who says that we can view our sins wrongly in two ways: by taking them too seriously, and by not taking them seriously enough. And if you are feeling bad about sin that is finished and forgiven, that is not from God, but from (As CS says) our father below. In my humble opinion, you might need to cut yourself some slack. And I want to encourage you that God is the redeemer, and it is his JOB to take situations that are so screwed up and with so much hurt and pain, situations that are so twisted by our own sin that we can't even imagine them ever resulting in anything but more pain, and transforming them into something that is amazing and life affirming and great. Like in the story of Esther-- what Hamaan planned as the terminination of the Israelites, God changed into a holiday that they celebrate to this day. Some people say that God won't do this for you until you believe he can, but I think that sometimes God helps us believe by doing this for us.