3 posts tagged “sin”
Here is a fascinating little article on the subject of "lazy evaluation." The idea is that you improve a process by delaying certain time-intensive steps until they are determined to be absolutely necessary. Sometimes, in life, we spend far too much time on time-intensive stuff that later proves to be superfluous. Nari Kannan, referencing this Wikipedia entry, writes:
...it pays to think about delaying certain process steps or avoiding them altogether, This may effect an impressive degree of process improvement.
Since knowing God's will is such a huge challenge for most believers, what can we learn from "lazy evaluation" in terms of improving our life processes? Here are a few thoughts:
- Sometimes you gain by waiting, especially when it comes to the temptation to act on hearsay or "the most current" information. (How many emails would never have been sent if we simply waited a week?)
- Procrastination is often simply doing something that takes a lot of time that wouldn't be necessary if you had "procrastinated" on the bad stuff, waiting till later--in many cases, never.
- Speaking of procrastinating the bad stuff, often, sin can be delayed by an hour or two. This is sometimes all the delay you need to never do it, which saves not only time, but guilt and grief and sorrow.
Steve Brown, in a recent issue of the Reformed Quarterly (Fall 2007) writes about Amazing Grace:
I have also observed that those who first learn about the amazing grace of God often do, for a period, sin more than before. They are like the college student who, finally out from under the parent’s strictures, tests his or her newfound freedom. These also will slip into the darkness.
But the most important thing about those who understand grace and slip back into the darkness is that they always come back. Those who were trying to be righteous by their own efforts sometimes never come back.
What is grace? Grace is what saves you, holds you, and finally gets you home before the dark. Its called Amazing Grace because when you finally understand and experience it, it takes your breath away.
May you have a breathtaking Christmas season this year praising God for His grace, and, even more, experiencing it every day.
At this year's annual gathering of pastors, elders, and church leaders for the Presbyterian Church in America (my denomination), I picked up a copy of Ruminate, a magazine by artists and poets for anyone who enjoys a different angle on the Christian faith.
I finished the Spring 2007 issue today and look forward to meeting with these folks the next time I visit my parents in Ft. Collins, and, when I have the money, to subscribe.
Meanwhile, here's a piece from the issue I just finished for your poetical appetite:
Profit by Joe Ricke
When the whore, his wife
Staggered back to their run-down dump of a home
And cursed him quick before collapsing
Spread-eagled on their tainted bed,
When he kissed her drunken, fevered lips
The taste of her many lovers mixed
With cheap liquor and the flesh of pork,
Hosea believed in Yahweh
(Joe Ricke teaches English at Taylor University. He mostly writes about early drama, but sometimes waxes poetic.)
