Sin is Costly

     A few weeks after my fall in the choir loft, I fell again in our Sunday School class. We had a large young married class of around 30 couples. In our class, donuts were a Sunday tradition. We were in class early to make sure we had time to fellowship. I had poured myself a cup of coffee and I am sure I had a donut in my hand. I was visiting with a few people and as I was talking I started playing on the stiletto heel of my shoe. I had just put my weight on it and was rotating my ankle around on the heel. Don’t ask why! I have no idea! As we go through these stories, there will be many times I will not be able to explain why, you will just have to go with it. Anyway, it wasn’t long until I knew I was going to fall. It wasn’t like the fall in the choir loft that happened so fast my mind had no time to prepare. This time it was as if I was seeing things in slow motion. When I knew it was certain I was going down, I immediately thought of the safety of others. Aren’t I a nice person? I didn’t want to throw my hot coffee on to anyone, so I threw it on the wall. I was so relieved that I did not go all the way down to the floor. I actually fell onto the table. However, I could only enjoy my relief for a few seconds because the realization of what I was actually sitting on was shooting from my behind to my head. I knew the evidence of my fall was going to stay with my backside, but I was more horrified of how this stupid fall was going to affect others. Imagine a crazy, hurried morning of getting the kids out the door. You grabbed a banana and a pop tart for the kids to eat on the way to church but you didn’t grab anything for yourself, though you are starving, because you know there will be donuts in your Sunday school class waiting for you. However, when you finally get to the class donuts you notice they are not normal. They are all smashed; flat as a pancake! You can’t figure out what has happened to the donuts until you see Tonya’s backside and you now have your answer. It doesn’t help your stomach growls but at least you know the donuts have been smashed because Tonya sat on them; every last one of them!
     It would be great in life if our falls, our sin, only affected us. But it doesn’t! Our sin affects us and it affects others. We live in a sinful world and the sins of the world affect you and me! If it didn’t, you wouldn’t have to be concerned with crime, godless beliefs, sexual perversions, drunk drivers, or drug dealers, etc. Very seldom does my sin only affect me, most of the time it affects my family, my friends, my church family, and my acquaintances.
     Never think sin is no big deal. Even the so called ‘little sins’ can devastate a person in the right situation. Maybe someone who feels so worthless is contemplating suicide and you being rude to them or chewing them out for something was the last straw! We must continually remind ourselves that sin is costly! Your sin costs you the consequences of disobedience and it costs others hurt and anguish. Don’t take sin lightly! It cost Jesus His life!

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we   are.”  And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explore.

Numbers 13:31-32

(This was when the spies came back from exploring the land.  Ten of the twelve were disobedient to what God had told them to do.  The result of their sin affected an entire nation.)