"We fear the search for who we are. Perhaps because we're afraid that having located our true souls, we might not like ourselves that much. So, we shrink to step across the threshold to our inner selves and invite God in. ... But no matter how we love the busy world of our relationships, the fast-action theater of our noisy and hurried lives at last empties out. Then we find ourselves in lonely cells of bulky silence that compels us to turn from the outer things and face our inner selves -- and our mighty God. -- Calvin Miller in "A Hunger for the Holy"
Sin is not so much theoretical word as it is a practical expression of a broken relationship. The opposite of love is not hate, which is still an active expression of what is in one's heart, but sin, that indescribable emptiness, brokenness and self-centered loathing that make hell not only real but essential. Hell is not something God created in order to vent His anger and revenge but an inevitable reality sin desires.
Christianity proclaims that God is love and where love reigns there God is at the center of it all, Supreme but connected to all. Where sin reigns God is not and we are at the center of it all, supreme but alone. This broken relationship produces fear, guilt, anxiety, bitterness, and self-hatred.
Love produces unity, community, compassion, caring and courage, but is also much harder than sin.
What will you choose? What have you already chosen?
