Grace Falls Like Rain, Sin Comes Like Acne

Though I doubt Todd Agnew will re-write his lyrics…

Doing dishes late at night always sparks these insightful revelations. As my gaze continually shifted from my hands in the dishwater, to the faucet, to the draining rack (and back), my focus kept getting distracted by this…thing. I didn’t know what it was at the time, so I couldn’t even come up with a creative word to describe it; it was just a “thing” that kept surfacing my vision, causing my thoughts to deviate from the soap suds.

As it turns out, it was actually a closed comedone. It’s pronounced “co-meh-dohn”, and to be shockingly truthful: it’s a zit. Not just any zit, mind you, but the kind that gets buried a few miles under your skin and manages to make that area sensitive–even though you can’t see it. Sometimes it takes a few days to surface, but then you know it’s there. (And so does everyone else.)

My closed comedone was located just beneath my eye, along the cheekbone, and suddenly last night it began to surface. Seeing my acne in a reflection is annoying, but seeing it at a personal squint-level is just plain gross. Since I was able to salvage the left side of my face with foundation this morning, I didn’t look like Mt. St. Helens had re-erupted—but it was still there. And though it was not as visible to the general populus, I knew it was still there.

Behold, the analogy is oozing out…

Sin takes our focus off of what we are supposed to be doing: serving God. It usually begins with “just a little” dirt getting in, and if we are not diligent in cleansing away the new and incoming impurities, they will soon take root and eventually fester. Similarly, the sin that begins in our hearts may not be immediately apparent to those around us. Sometimes it hasn’t come to a “head” yet, or sometimes we try to ignore it, so the realization doesn’t go to our head, too. But God, who knows our deepest thoughts, still recognizes sin for what it is—and it would be in our best interest to not play dumb with God.

Continuing the correlation…

While acne is often more genetically-related, sin is not…necessarily. Sin is “genetic” in the sense that when Adam and Eve sinned, the consequence (that is, sin nature) was passed down to us, but genes and chromosomes do not prevent our capability to change our response to it. We have the conscious capability to choose our actions correctly, and because of the salvation Jesus offers, we are not subject to an incurable “sin disorder”.

We are not bound by sin.

We are not obligated to look at it, listen to it, or reason with it. If we belong to Jesus, His voice is the only one we should listen to. We don’t even need to entertain the ideas with which Satan tries to entice us, because he has (or should have) no mastery in our lives. Best of all, we are given the tools necessary to prevent sin from festering and bubbling in the pores of our soul. Indeed—we have the washcloth of the Word and the soap of the Spirit. 😀

Sin, prepare to be scrubbed.

“(Husbands, love your wives) just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
– Ephesians 5:25-27

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”
– Philippians 1:9-11