At different times my boys, all in their twenties and making their way in world, have said, “Life sucks!” And although I have been richly blessed in many ways, I have to agree. At especially discouraging times, a couple of my kids have said, “I hate my life!”
Last night my father appeared in a dream. I don’t remember much of the dream except thinking, “I want to hug him.” He was sitting in a booth at a restaurant with his back turned to me. He didn’t turn around and I woke up before I got to the booth. He died in 1993. Peter was three at the time so he has only a few memories of grandpa. The other boys never met him. Mom is now 91 and still misses him. Death sucks!
But death entered the world through sin—the sin of Adam and Eve. And when I think of the things about life that are terrible, depressing, and heart-rending, I quickly see that most of what makes life suck is sin—plain old stupid-ugly sin.
The trick of Satan is to first tempt us to sin, and then get us to hate God for the consequences of our sin. Some people sow sin, reap misery, and spend the rest of their lives bitter toward God about their sucky lives. Others are victims of sinful people and get back at these people by embracing the same sinfulness. Stupid, but most of us have done it some.
We should hate! But not God and not ourselves, or even those who hurt us. We should hate sin. We should hate it like surgeons hate cancer, like brides hate dirt on their dresses, and like chefs hate flies in their soup.
We aren’t going be content with a just a little cancer, mud only on one side of the wedding gown, or a fly only in one part of the soup bowl. Here is one place that a zero-tolerance policy makes sense. We should hate the rebellion, unbelief, and disobedience that brought death into the world and in little ways brings into each day.
Of course it is tempting to hate sin only in others and be blind to it in ourselves. But we are called to hate sin in ourselves and be grieved and prayerful when we stumble across it in others.
No matter how many ways the world tries to dress sin up as fun, exciting, and glamorous, we need to see it in all its ugliness and smell the stink of death around it. I want my boys to recognize that sin is what makes life suck. I want them love God, thank Him for their life, and hate sin with a perfect hatred.
