I know there are a number of you have heard this before, but I’ve got a story for those of you who haven’t heard it yet…
When I was younger, my brother Dan (I call him Deal) and I had a bedroom together. We had bunk beds and I slept on the top bunk because he would always fall off and hurt himself…Anyway, Deal had this enjoyment of eating dried apricots. I’ve kind of boycotted them myself, but from what I remember, they are pretty sweet and there’s something about them that make you just want to eat the whole bag…or two! Well, Deal used to eat ALL of them and then go to bed. The problem is that those dried apricots would do something dangerous in his stomach and when it all came out of him, the fumes were deadly. Seriously though, there were a number of hot summer nights when I had to leave my room or sleep on the floor because the heat would just carry that profuse smell up into a cloud around my head while I lay trying to sleep!!! Disgusting eh?
Anyway, dried apricots, to the best of my knowledge, is a lot like sin and secret sin in particular…We often get a taste of it and it is initially sweet and we don’t see any tangible effects right away so we just keep eating of it…It’s only after we’ve downed a decent amount of sin do we really start feeling a little sick inside…The gas inside just seems to multiply out of nowhere and it becomes a huge pain inside of us…This cramp just builds and builds as we try to hold it in so that no one will know about it. Haha, it’s kind of like when a guy or girl who you are interested in walks by and the last thing you want is to fart in front of them, so you do EVERYTHING you can to keep that junk inside…Truth of the matter is, sin is shameful so we try to keep it to ourselves. The problem with that is that becomes almost crippling because anyone who has tried to keep gas in for far too long knows that there comes a point where it just hurts…
The problem with both gas from dried apricots and sin is that there comes a point in time when it is just going to come…whether you want it to or not.
Basically, what it comes down to is that everything about us will one day be exposed and you can either try to face it now and move on or wait for it all to come out at once and be in pain from now until then. Hurting from the inside out doesn’t do a lot of good for others or even yourself…
Either way, when it comes out there are a few things that will immediately happen. First of all, it is going to stink!!! Don’t be surprised when there is a stench to your sin when it comes out…just the way it is. Second of all, for any of you who have held in gas for a long time, you can be the first to recognize that when it finally gets out of you, there is an undeniable freeing feeling from the release. It just feels good to let it go! Third thing that will happen is that there will be a response from those around you…here are a few ways they may react:
1. Some may look at you and your sin and come down hard on you with responses of how sick you and your sin are and how could you or why would you…there will be a disgust in their judgment of you…for those who meet this criteria, I beg of you to be gracious, gentle and slow to anger with them. Chances are that they have sin inside of them that has to come out and as long as they can keep the focus on you, they think that less people will notice their doubled-over-in-pain stance.
2. Others may put a distance between you and them and won’t say much but will not want much to do with you…This will be for a number of reasons, but it’s ok to let them observe you and your changes from a distance.
3. Still others will stick around you and even though there is a stink about you at the time, they will stand by your side because they care more about you than what you step in…These people are called friends…love them and hold onto them…who knows, you might give them the courage to let one fly too…
You know what the cool thing about gas is…it dissipates!!! yup, while it stinks at first, you can leave it where it’s at and move on and the stench will slowly leave…you won’t have to stand in it forever 🙂
