the goatee analogy

July 23, 2003

for the past two weeks, i've been growing out a goatee. it all began when amanda told me not to shave. actually, when we were in the village, i never looked into the mirror, so i had no idea how 'furry' i was until one day i found a mirror. but when i did realize how furry i was, i wanted to get rid of it! so i made a compromise with amanda (without telling her.. that's your eye amanda! hehe) that i would shave some of it away but let a goatee develop on me chin!

so two weeks pass, and eventually it's getting pretty long and crazy. i thought it was kinda fun, but i realized that you have to like maintain a goatee (who would have thought?) or else it gets way too long. and really, i don't have the patience to like 'trim' it every now and then. so i decided to get rid of it monday morning. i was not expecting what happened. i was actually having a pretty tough time shaving it off, because it was so long. it took me way longer than normal to shave it all away because there was so much of it. and then it hits me. it's a lot like sin, isn't it? if you let a sin harbour in your heart for days, weeks and maybe even years, it's bad news. because it'll just grow deeper and deeper.

have you ever been angry with someone for an extended period of time? the anger eventually develops into bitterness, which develops into hate. james 1:15 says this "Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." read it over again. "and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

how does sin become full-grown? you let it grow. when you try to rid yourself of it, it's that much harder to get rid of than if you had gotten rid of it earlier. it's like my goatee. if i had shaved earlier, it would have been really easy. maybe a few swipes and it's all gone. but i let it go for two whole weeks, and by that time, it was bad news. i had to spend a long time to get rid of it. trust me friends, you do not want to battle with sin that's full-grown.

is there a way to prevent it? when you sin, don't let it linger over you. ask God for His forgiveness and repent right then and there! if you don't, and you carry the weight of sin over you during the day, you provide the opportunity for it to become full-grown. why carry the stench of sin on your shoulders when God wants to take it away and made you clean? i'm reminded of the shower analogy that the Spirit made alive to me some time ago. when we're dirty, we run to a shower to make ourselves clean. in the same way, let's run towards our Heavenly Father, if ever we stumble and fall. He'll be there to pick us up and restore us!

Posted by Leo Chan at July 23, 2003 6:51 PM