“So often we want Jesus to manage the effects of sin without actually addressing the root issue. But Jesus loves us too much to offer only a superficial solution. He knows the hidden sins of our hearts, and He lovingly insists on dealing with those first.” ~ Uncovering the Love of Jesus: A Lent Devotional
The stupid things that I have done in my life stay with me in my memory and often come out to say, “Remember this?” One of those events coincided with the Fourth of July last year. On the Fourth, I was in the local hospital with a rather infected leg injury. A few weeks prior, I took a nasty tumble off a chair in the church (don’t ask). I had scraped my leg on the underside of the chair and, unbeknownst to me, the wound was deeper than I thought.
The next couple of weeks, I cleaned the wound and applied some anti-bacterial ointment. I kept the wound covered and waited for nature to do its thing. Well, nature was doing its thing but only in the terms of an infection. By the time I admitted that I had a problem, I found myself in the emergency room with a leg that was warm to the touch and a wound that was quite red and obviously in trouble.
I ended up with a three day stay in the hospital while they administered IV antibiotics in order to bring the infection under control so that they could get rid of it. I also bear a discolored patch of skin on my shin bone where the infection was as a reminder of my foolish inaction.
The thing was, I didn’t know that I had an infection. If I would have known, I would have gone to the doctor sooner. By the time I sought out a doctor, oral antibiotics were no longer strong enough to handle the infection. The scary thing about it is that, if I had waited a little bit longer, the wound could have gone septic and I could have lost a leg.
This reflection isn’t about my leg; but, I am sure you sussed that out already. The analogy of my leg infection is a reflection of today’s quote. Our Lenten resolutions will not help us at all if we are working on superficial things instead of addressing the root causes of our sin. Why allow an infection to continue inside of us? All it will do is fester and spread.
Concentrating on the external and superficial and looking good on the outside is not worth losing our soul in the process. Dig deeper. Look more intensely. See if there is sin festering within that is working on your destruction. Root that out this Lent so that you may be healthier and happier.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to help you identify the root cause of your sinfulness so that you may begin to address those areas of your life that keep you from Him.