What My Hat Taught Me About Sin
When you have a large head like I do, hats that fit correctly are few and far between. The saying 'one size fits all' is a dirty, dirty lie. So when I come across a hat that is both stylish and correctly proportioned I tend to snatch it up right away. Enter my Red Wings hat.
It's all black, with a white logo, sized at 7 7/8, large enough to wear either frontwards or backwards, and it's got a flat bill, because I'm hip to the times. It is without a doubt my go to hat. When I wake up in the morning and don't feel like dealing with my hair, this hat goes on: time and mental energy saved, mission accomplished.
It's an easy thing to do, to wear a hat. But thinking about this led me to realize that wearing a hat is a great metaphor for our sin. Let me explain...
A lot of our sins, just like this hat, are meant to cover things up. We could say, "I don't want to deal with this certain truth, so I'll just lie about it". It's a simple deviation that we do without thinking too much about. But we don't sin just to cover up small truths we aren't particularly fond of. No, we sin to cover up guilt, shame, insecurity, low self-esteem, lust, greed, hatred, anger, etc. And the more we cover up these things with lies, the greater the habit becomes.
The more I wear my hat, the more likely I am to continue to wear it. I know it sounds silly to say but, it really is easier to wear a hat than to do my hair. I realize how ridiculous this must sound to women, there are entire businesses devoted to your hair, I get it. But the amount of mental energy saved by making this simple decision is a wondeful feeling in the morning.
The same can be said about sinning. The amount of mental energy we think we're saving by telling that little lie, or ignoring our baggage, at the moment feels great. Most of us don't sin because we want to go against God in open rebellion, most of us sin because in the moment it feels good, it feels easier. And this is how satan builds sinful habits in our lives, little by little, one sin at a time until it becomes second nature to us.
Somewhere along the line we thought following Christ was going to be easy. I think this is a gross misunderstanding of what our relaitonship with God is meant to be. When we come to a saving knowledge of God and become part of his family we don't get to take the easy road. That's not what God promises.
What God does promise is that he will be with us on the hard road. The easiest part of Christianity is saying 'yes' to God. From that point forward you've got a target on your back and satan is going to do his best to make sure that he offers you as many easy things as possible.
If you want love, he offers lust. If you want to be free, he offers drugs. If you want financial independence, he offers credit. If you want rest, he offers lazyness. It's always a bait and switch with satan. In place of the good things God has for us along the hard road, satan offers something that looks easier at first. But lust will never be love. Love doesn't destroy, that is lust's sole purpose. Drugs will never free us, but instead will bind us. Credit will never offer financial independence, and lazyness never makes you rested.
The only way to make it through the hard road is with God becuase even if we give into the different 'hats' that satan offers us along the way, God is only one who can remove them from us. This is the whole reason Jesus was sent to die, so that God could be with us on that road, showing us the way to himself.
Don't give up, God is with us. Be on the lookout for those easy traps. Trust that God is in control.