Worth Quoting

Those of us who struggle with habitual sins--and we know who we are--are very likely to break our hearts over the business of turning away from those chronic mark missings [from the Greek word for sin: amartia--SFM].  Our problems with recurring sin, and the more general human problem of being enslaved by sin, is never simply solved by our rejecting that sin, no matter how many times we try, no matter how strenuously we struggle to reject it.

That is because merely rejecting sin--that is, focusing on not sinning--is finally just another species of infernal no.

"Just say no" is an insufficient principle.

The strongest man or woman in the world is not nearly strong enough to triumph over his or her sin simply by saying no to it.  What we need is the strength-giving grace occasioned by our saying yes to something else, by our saying yes, and yes, and yes--ceaselessly--to Someone else.

It is not our finally turning away from sin that frees us from sin's recurrance; rather it is our turning toward Christ--and the mystery of our continuing to turn to him--that puts sin behind us.

                                                                                --Scott Cairns, The End of Suffering