Missing Sin

It’s 6am, gloves are smelly, heat is ridiculous, music is blaring, the instructor is merciless and the time has seemingly stopped. Which is horrible in this case, because we can’t stop this punching combination until the bell rings. WHERE IS THE BELL?! Did the instructor override the bell?! Why is 20 seconds feeling like 7 hours?!

This was my experience in Tuesday’s boxing class. And per usual, after we had taken off gloves and unwrapped hands me and my brother-in-law discussed hardest moments. Funny enough it wasn’t the time of day, heat or the exercise – though they were brutal – but it was the music that proved most difficult to withstand.

The music was sonically pleasing, too pleasing, played one or two decibels too loudly and induced nostalgia of a life of sin. And as we bemoaned the fact that there was no way we’d get them to change the music, we pondered aloud if there was any part of us that missed this sinful music. Does it still have a hold on us? We don’t listen to it anymore, but do we still like it? Do it’s vibrations find rest in us? Does its message resonate?

Later that day, though the torture of boxing class was behind me, the thoughts of missing sin lingered and were stirred up by a similar conversation with some friends. Is it sin to miss sin? The answer was yes. And as I looked through Scripture I was struck by the example of Lot’s wife, a paragon of the topic. She was to flee from wicked Sodom and Gomorrah and not look back, but indeed she did and with a glance backwards turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:17,29).

Our King commanded His listeners to “remember Lot’s wife” as an example of those who long for a life that He died to rescue us from (Luke 17:33,34). To miss sin is dangerous as it;

Let’s look to not merely “stop sinning” but hate sin itself. The latter will lead us to the former.

Glory to God!