Diagnosing sin is pretty easy. It’s all around us. We don’t have to look very far. One diagnostic tool that I’ve used to find sin in myself and my surroundings has been the “I wish . . .” tool. I just sit there and wish. After all, a wish is just an acknowledgement of some desire – and as long as that desire comes from a good place, as most desires do, the lack of having that desire fulfilled can tell me something about the sin that is present around me. One of those wishes that seems to come up time and again is a wish for “more time”. At its center, the wish for more time simply recognizes the frustration that God puts poetically in the curse of Genesis 3, “by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread.” I want more time because I want to do more stuff, but sin has frustrated that desire.
I recently had a conversation with someone who posed this question to me: “What do you want to change today?” It’s a pretty big question. Eventually, it leads you to narrow it down to a further question, “What COULD I change today?” Could I change my relationship with someone? Could I change myself in some way? Could I change something else?
Sometimes the question “What could I change?” is empowering, because there are actually things that we can change. Unfortunately, our sins are not one of those things. I can’t change that just like I can’t get more time in my day. Without something magical and mysterious – nothing is going to change that.
But the thing is that something magical and mysterious has come, and it has come in the person of Jesus Christ. We begin to see the effect of His work today in our lives – but what we’re really looking forward to is one day. There will be one day when someone will say “What do you want to change today?” and we will be able to answer honestly and say, “There is nothing that I want to change about today.” And that “today” will last forever and ever in the Resurrection.