When I was growing up, committing sins was viewed as bad form. Every time a sin is committed, God becomes angry. Sin simply was dirty, wicked, nasty and naughty to the extreme. In fact, because people seem born to sin, we don't deserve salvation at all; we only get saved because God gives it to us...under certain conditions, of course.
Even though I left the church long ago, this definition hung with me for many years. When I screwed up, I continued to feel those horrible pangs of guilt. I'd tell myself I was wasn't worthy, though I no longer remember what exactly I wasn't worthy of.
This concept of sin was so ingrained that it took me many decades to flush it out of my system. Today I no longer concern myself with sin. It's just not something I think about very often and I certainly don't live my life in avoidance of something I no longer believe in.
As I've aged, I've come to see the great value in messing things up. Every misstep offers a valuable lesson. Every grievous lapse of judgment holds promise. Every chord of disharmony offers an opportunity.
Wisdom is born of failure. Every time we stagger and stumble along our path, we are granted the golden opportunity to learn something we might have missed otherwise. In a manner of speaking, one could say that sin is good for the human soul!
Please don't misunderstand this statement. I'm certainly not suggesting that we lead hedonistic lives. If a person knowingly screws up in order to "learn lessons," then the lessons won't be learned. For example, if you decide to kill your neighbor as a way of providing fodder for you to reach enlightenment, you ain't going to get there because it doesn't work that way!
There is no manual for life. We each have to make it up as we go along. For the most part, life is about trial and error; most of us have a lot of experience with the latter. But those errors are what provide our lives with meaning...IF we are open to learn from them.
In other words, I firmly believe that no one called Sage has led a life without blemish. The truly wise have messed as much (if not more) than the rest of us. What separates the sagacious from the foolish is that the former LEARNED from their mistakes, while the latter simply repeat them over and over again.
Even though I left the church long ago, this definition hung with me for many years. When I screwed up, I continued to feel those horrible pangs of guilt. I'd tell myself I was wasn't worthy, though I no longer remember what exactly I wasn't worthy of.
This concept of sin was so ingrained that it took me many decades to flush it out of my system. Today I no longer concern myself with sin. It's just not something I think about very often and I certainly don't live my life in avoidance of something I no longer believe in.
As I've aged, I've come to see the great value in messing things up. Every misstep offers a valuable lesson. Every grievous lapse of judgment holds promise. Every chord of disharmony offers an opportunity.
Wisdom is born of failure. Every time we stagger and stumble along our path, we are granted the golden opportunity to learn something we might have missed otherwise. In a manner of speaking, one could say that sin is good for the human soul!
Please don't misunderstand this statement. I'm certainly not suggesting that we lead hedonistic lives. If a person knowingly screws up in order to "learn lessons," then the lessons won't be learned. For example, if you decide to kill your neighbor as a way of providing fodder for you to reach enlightenment, you ain't going to get there because it doesn't work that way!
There is no manual for life. We each have to make it up as we go along. For the most part, life is about trial and error; most of us have a lot of experience with the latter. But those errors are what provide our lives with meaning...IF we are open to learn from them.
In other words, I firmly believe that no one called Sage has led a life without blemish. The truly wise have messed as much (if not more) than the rest of us. What separates the sagacious from the foolish is that the former LEARNED from their mistakes, while the latter simply repeat them over and over again.
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