How many sins do you have?

We are journeying through Blue Like Jazz in our home group on Friday nights.

Last week was very eventful. Thought-provoking, and challenging throughout the evening for sure. There was intensity, there was blunt statements, and in the end true bonds created by the blood of Christ (unless there was fall out in any of the marriages represented that I am unaware of.... :))

Anyway, that is not what this post is going to be about.

In the first chapter of Don Miller's book (I can call him Don because we just have "that" kind of connection....after all he is soon to be my husband!) he talks about sin saying this;

"I started to sin about the time I turned ten. I believe I was ten, although it could have been earlier, but ten is about the age a boy starts to sin, so I am sure it was in there somewhere. Girls begin to sin when they are twenty-three or something, but they do life much softer by their nature and so need less of a run at things."

This makes me laugh.

But not nearly as hard as the view my first graders had on my own sin life today.....

We were talking about Jonah, and as I am telling the story some of the boys seem to have this look in their eyes speaking to me about the extreme coolness of living inside an enormous fish.

Trying desperately to communicate that being trapped inside the belly of this fish was not a way cool vacation for Jonah, I was telling them what it might be like inside the fish.

Smelly, dark, pitch dark, slimy, being tossed and turned, nothing to eat, no one to talk to, etc. and on and on and on....

"Miss Liddell, (puzzled at my in depth knowledge on the subject) you've been in the belly of a fish?"

Before I could answer several kids (mostly girls) immediately adamantly proclaim, "Miss Liddell NEVER disobeys God. EVER."

Again, before I could respond, another child chimed in, pointing her finger at me, "You made one sin, but then God changed you."

But alas, the verdict was not complete. One of the students who is in trouble the very most in this class pipes up proudly, and quite confidently, "Miss Liddell, you made two sins."

I couldn't control it any longer.

I burst.

Laughter erupted from the depths of my soul. A flood of emotions and thoughts imprinted my heart;

Oh Lord, the vast responsibility You entrusted me with. These children don't think I mess up. What will happen to their theology when they realize this is not true?

I want them to strive towards a life submitted to Me. You leave their view of you up to Me.

Two sins? What were they, and who told you?

Seriously, how funny is this?!?!

What truth, what powerful amazing profound truth.

Yeah, Miss Liddell, you did sin. But God, He changed you. He made you new. That was the old you, but this new Miss Liddell seeks after God with all of her heart and soul.

Oh, this is the freedom I have in Christ. This is the "magic" of the gospel. This is my identity in Christ.

It really is this simple.

It really is.