One more thought of the day:
An atheist on social media asked Christians that if they found out that God doesn't actually exist what would they do? What Christian virtues would they abandon?
A lot of people got defensive and argued against the question. Some were honest. I decided to actually consider the exercise and felt two particular things:
1. I would not really change myself too much because I like the virtues and character I have developed and see the benefits of being a good person.
2. One particular sin jumped out as something I REALLY want to do and would be glad to have the freedom to do it.
That's when it struck me that this is actually a really good exercise for Christians, because the sins you're immediately attracted to and would jump on reveal the ones we have yet to be set free from!
This also piggy-backs on an argument I had with God just yesterday about why He keeps allowing situations to pop up where I sin in an area I frequently confess and am trying not to sin in, anymore. He clarified to me that He allows the frequency because how else am I going to learn? He said that protecting me from the triggers and merely keeping me from the opportunity to sin doesn't actually overcome the sin. The sin is always there, lurking, ready for the opportunity to happen. But, when He continually allows the opportunities, He is actually giving me the training grounds to OVERCOME the sin!
I grew up in an evangelical tradition where salvation meant we were free from going to hell for our sins even though we continue to be sinners. We also believed that we can't help but sin, but that's not really our fault, but we can do better if we just avoid the opportunity to begin with. Unfortunately, this created some very toxic teachings such as instead of addressing a husband's violent temper, they would tell the wife and children to make sure not to trigger him. Instead of telling men to control themselves and not lust, they would tell a 12 year old little girl with budding breasts that she's a stumbling block and she should dress more modestly, even if she's already dressed appropriately for her age and activity.
One of the many reasons I converted to Catholicism was because Catholicism offers a person the ability to actually grow in virtue and form their character, not just virtue-signal outwardly and white-knuckle sins inwardly.
So, now that this atheist's question proved to be very helpful in rooting out a pet sin, time to work on that.
