A Word from Pastor Lisa: I Like to Sin
“The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can’t do it. I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don’t want to do.” -- Paul in Romans 7:18b-19
My favorite part of kindergarten is the writing assignments with phonetic spelling, or as our six-year-old calls them, “my personal narratives.” We’ve delighted in the wonderful stories from her perspective, oftentimes with opportunities to decode the spelling. Our daughter’s class recently read the book There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed a Frog. When they were asked to write their own story, she wrote and illustrated a story about our dog: “Amos swallowed a squerl.” Unfortunately, that was a completely true story, as my husband spotted the squirrel’s tail dangling from the dog’s mouth.
Author Glennon Doyle began her career with a blog called Momastery, where she wrote about her kindergarten daughter’s writing assignment. The little girl was asked to describe what she likes to do in her free time. Her daughter neatly printed, “I like to sin.” The teacher contacted Doyle to alert her, and Doyle immediately panicked. How could her five year old already know that she loves to sin? What would the teacher think of them? What was wrong with her family? Was she a terrible parent? Were they going to church enough? Would her daughter become a rebellious teen and a dysfunctional adult?
We too like to sin, but unlike Doyle’s daughter, we’re not honest enough to put it in writing. The word “sin” has often been used as a bludgeon by the church, but I wish we could reclaim it as a helpful term to describe our brokenness as individuals and communities. In Scripture, sin typically means missing the mark of love for God and for our neighbors. As Romans 3:23 reminds us, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, both in what we have done and what we have left undone. Later in Romans, Paul adds that while the desire to do good lies inside of us, we can’t do it. We don’t do the good we want to do, but we do the bad we don’t want to do. This is part of the human condition.
Our journey through Lent toward Easter reminds us that this is only half of the truth. Yes, we are sinful and broken people. But we are also offered grace, forgiveness, and redemption by a Savior who loves us beyond all measure. Lent is a time to acknowledge our personal and corporate shortcomings and missteps, while also lamenting the suffering we see in our world. It’s a reminder that we won’t always moan with grief and pain. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we will sing to the Lord a new song.
The night after Doyle discovered her kindergartner liked to sin, she approached her child nervously about the assignment. “Sweetheart, can you tell me more about what you wrote here?” she asked tentatively. Her daughter replied, “Oh mommy, didn’t you know that I like to sing?”
May kindergarten orthography always offer us a good laugh. And may our love of sinning be always transformed into singing new songs of joy through the grace of Jesus Christ.