My Invisible Sin

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How many times do we look at something and not see it?

I’m sitting out on my deck at 10 a.m., facing the neighbor’s fence. In front of me, across my lawn, is the shadow of what appears to be a giant fence. I don’t remember ever seeing that shadow before. I don’t even recognize the design. So I look behind me. There is a fence back there, but the sunlight isn’t coming from that direction.

Then I look to my left. We have some latticework above one part of the deck, and the sun is shining through it, casting that giant fence across the grass.

I’ve sat here at the same time plenty of mornings. The sky hasn’t always been clear, but I’ve sat under enough clear skies to wonder how I missed this. Was the shadow there before? Had I looked right at it? I don’t know. I only know that this morning it is clear as day, and I’m wondering what else I’ve been looking at without seeing.

And maybe that’s the way sin is in our lives. It can be staring us right in the face, but we don’t recognize it as sin.

How does that happen? How does something wrong become so familiar that we stop giving it a second thought?

There may have been a time when it bothered us. We said something, or did something, and there was that little hesitation. Maybe a cocking of the head, as if to say, “That’s not right.” Then came the shrug of the shoulders. The next time, maybe a crinkling of the nose, followed by another shrug. After a while, we don’t even hesitate.

The shoulder shrug becomes a personal form of absolution. As long as our shoulder muscles are working, we can keep clearing ourselves of whatever needs clearing. The ultimate do-it-yourself project. Self-forgiveness of sins. You won’t find that kit at Home Depot.

But dismissing a thing doesn’t settle it with the Lord. We can grow comfortable with something God has already told us is wrong.

Heb. 3:13 says, “But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Sin deceives us. And according to that verse, it can harden us. We can become less willing to listen, less willing to admit anything is wrong. That is why we need the daily encouragement and correction of other believers. Someone who loves us might see something we have stopped seeing. Will we listen when they speak?

We ought to pay attention when our first response to correction is to defend ourselves. Maybe the other person has misunderstood. That happens. But what if they haven’t? Can we give their words a fair hearing before we start explaining them away? We ask other people to consider their behavior. We should be willing to consider ours. That includes the things we have done for years.

We have our explanations ready. An unkind remark becomes, “Just being honest.” Gossip becomes concern. We hold onto an old offense because, after all, we remember what that person did. We can explain every word and every action. But have we ever stopped to ask whether the Lord agrees with our explanation?

And while we have trouble recognizing sin in our own lives, how easily we spot it in somebody else. They might as well advertise it on one of those huge billboards alongside the highway. We see it without even looking for it. We can tell you what they did, why it was wrong, and what they ought to do about it.

Does any verse of Scripture come to mind? Maybe something about a plank and an eye?

Matt. 7:3-5 says, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Jesus tells us where to begin: with ourselves. There is something in our own eye that needs attention, and we are busy offering to help somebody else see.

Notice that he does speak about helping our brother. There is a proper place for that. But first we have to deal honestly with our own sin. How much patience will we have with another person if we have forgotten how much patience the Lord has shown us? How gently will we speak if all we can see is their failure?

This is where that shadow on the lawn starts getting personal. I can spend the morning wondering how I missed it, and then spend the afternoon overlooking something in myself. I need more than a passing thought about paying attention. I need to bring my life before the Lord and be willing to hear what his Word says about it.

David prayed this way: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps. 139:23-24).

That is a prayer we can make our own. Lord, search me. Help me see what I have been excusing. Help me hear the corrections I have been brushing aside. And lead me in the way you want me to go.

When we read the Bible, we need to let it speak to us. If a passage deals with anger, we can ask about our own temper. If it deals with forgiveness, we can consider whom we are refusing to forgive. We can sit with those questions long enough to answer them honestly. The Lord knows the answers. We need to face them ourselves.

Then when he shows us something, we need to confess it. We need to name it honestly and turn from it. There might be an apology to make, a conversation to stop repeating, or resentment we need to surrender to him. Knowing something is wrong gives us something to do about it.

And we can come to God with confidence in his mercy.

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).

There is forgiveness with the Lord. He knows what we have done, and God calls us to come honestly before him. We can stop making excuses. We can confess our sin and trust God to forgive and cleanse us. What a mercy that is for people who can be so slow to see what is right in front of them.

I don’t know how many mornings that shadow has been on my lawn. But this morning it gave me something to think about. Before I spend too much time examining somebody else’s life, I need to ask the Lord to examine mine.

And when God shows me something, I pray I’ll do more than shrug my shoulders.