"On Sin and Dog's Pooh"

Imagine with me ... It is 4am in the morning and you wake up to go to the toilet. You step out of your room and at your second step out of the room ... "squish". It is dark ... but you realize you have stepped on something that shouldn't be there - dog's pooh. Yikes!!! :(

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Yes, in case you are wondering, that was exactly what happened to me just last night - the very first time i came into physical contact with pooh of any kind (well, as far as i can remember anyway)!!! Oh, how gross the feeling!!! To recap (and pardon the explicitness of it all) ... First came the soft, warm and sinking sensation as my toes 'submerged' into one of the few brown lifeless lumps ... then came the slight stench to confirm my momentary fears of what i might have stepped on. Ooh, the wonders of the sense of touch and smell!!! "SCOOTER!!!" my mind echoed in protest ... but he was nowhere to be found; probably hiding in my sister's room, soundly asleep!!! Oh well, guess that's part and parcel of having a dog at home. :)

Anyway, i did what i believe most of us would do (at least in our sane moments) ... i ran straight into the bathroom and started washing away the unwanted stain off my left foot. Yes, i was determined to get that yucky thing off my foot as soon as i could!!! Oh, you should have seen my utter eagerness to rid myself of that stain!!! Yucks!!! (*Gotta confess that even now i can still 'feel' that sensation as my toes slid into Scooter's excretion!!! Urggh!!!) :P

On hindsight, this incident somehow taught me a spiritual lesson. As human beings (and in the right frame of mind), we would be quick and wise enough to rid ourselves of any 'foreign' thing that we know shouldn't be on our body (in this instance, dog's pooh); however, the question that came to me was how quick are we, as born-again Christians, to deal with sin in our lives? Oh, if we would be quick to rid ourselves of dog's pooh on our feet, how quick would we be to rid ourselves of its spiritual equivalent - namely, sin? Oh, far be it from us to cherish sin in our lives (which, sometimes - oddly enough - we are guilty of)!!! Think of it: Cherishing sin can be likened to us loving to have dog's pooh left smeared on our body!!! How absurd the thought!!! But oh, how sometimes we fail to see it as such!!! May God grant us eyes to see sin as it really is - a deadly posion coated with sugar to entice us or, for that matter, dog's pooh decorated with eye-catching and exotic flowers to attract us!!! Oh, the surpassing sinfulness of sin and the exceeding execrableness of excretion!!! Oh well, i trust you get the idea!!! :P

O Lord, please help me view sin the way it really is - that is, a spiritual equivalent of dog's pooh (or even better, to view it as something much more abhorrent, detestable, and absolutely disgusting)!!! Oh, let me be ever so quick and vigilant to deal with sin in my life and not let it fester. Let me not be so hardened, blinded or deceived that i foolishly cherish sin in my heart!!! Let me do what i did with Scooter's misplaced pooh - that is, get rid of it at the first instance!!! Help me to always say no to sin but yes to righteousness!!! Amen!!! :)

"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin

but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body

so that you obey its evil desires.

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin,

as instruments of wickedness,

but rather offer yourselves to God,

as those who have been brought from death to life;

and offer the parts of your body to Him

as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master,

because you are not under law,

but under grace."

- Romans 6: 11-14