Self-inflicted

The other day my 2 month old son was on his play mat doing his thing when suddenly he began to scream out in pain. Normally when he does that I just assume that he has a gas bubble that's gotten trapped and needs to be held over my shoulder until it's better, but this time it was different. He was under attack! I saw a big lock of his hair in the grip of a fist that would not let go. The crazy part about this was that it was his own fist that had grabbed hold of his hair. And as bad as it was hurting him he couldn't seem to be able to let go of his own hair so that he could stop the pain.

A lot of the struggles and pains that we face every day are often the result of self-inflicted wounds. I'm not talking about when someone else hurts you or when a loved one gets sick; I'm talking about the ways that we hurt ourselves by our own sin. Galatians 6:7 clearly tells us that when we sin we have to face the consequences of our sin. In other words, when we choose to do what we know is wrong then we will have to face up to the consequences for our actions. That might mean that someone will receive an F if he gets caught cheating on a test or a woman will lose her marriage to divorce if she is unfaithful to her husband. Sin hurts! Paul wrote the whole chapter of Romans 6 as a response to the self-inflicted wounds that we place on ourselves and the reasons why we do it. The good news is that we don't have to live this way. In Christ we are liberated from the slavery that sin can put is in. All of us will inevitably struggle with sin issues but it's refreshing and hopeful to know that in Christ we no longer have to endure the seemingly endless trauma of self-inflicted wounds that we can bring upon ourselves. Stop beating on yourselves and instead wrap yourself in the liberating grace of Jesus Christ.