Excuses

So.

For a few years now I've been telling my sister that the choices she was making meant that there would be consequences to pay later. She disregarded me time and again even though she has paid consequences along the way.

This week, she has hit the consequences jackpot though.

I was driving around today thinking about that, and thinking about her tendency to make excuses when confronted with her shortcomings or poor decisions.

Then I began thinking about my own long history of making excuses for my shortcomings and poor decisions. I would like to state for the record that although I have been prone to this, I am more likely to castigate myself.

I began to think though how everyone is always looking for an excuse for their bad behavior, and people always have been since Adam pointed his finger at Eve.

Then I began to think more and I began to get tears in my eyes. I'll explain why in a minute.

I've been telling Sarah that the only way she's going to find peace and satisfaction in life is to live her life the way her Savior wants her to. To live life any other way is to invite him to keep trying to get our attention until we repent.

I was thinking about that, and also listening on the radio as someone was talking about how throughout our life we will always be repenting. We face a never-ending process of sinning and repenting.

I thought to myself that what a loving and wonderful God we serve, because we do not deserve His repeated forgiveness, redemption and restoration. We choose to commit the sins we commit, and there are consequences. The consequence of sin is Hell. Mostly what occurred to me though was that we have no excuses for our sin.

God doesn't care. Jesus didn't care. He knew every sin and He still chose to die for me. For you. For all of us.

That chokes me up. What a mighty God we serve.