The Big Hurt Thesis

And no, this got nuffin to do with Frank Thomas... dag, I said nuffin. Friggin NY kids...

So I had a religious debate the other night, and now I'm stuck in a place most Christians frequent. There's something I want, but it would go against my beliefs. That hurts. Alternatively, I could just go for it and face the consequences. That hurts too.

So I was walking around my house today pondering. I really wanna do the right thing but: 1) I'm not 100% sure what the right thing is and 2) if it is what I think it is, it seems doing the right thing would hurt as much as doing the wrong thing. At least, that's what I thought the moment it hit me.

And don't get me wrong, I know better: when it comes to making choices, it's not about what hurts more or less; it's about doing what pleases God regardless. But I stopped and thought for a second: sin hurts; doing the right thing hurts. There had to be something more to it... And then I had a revelation.

One thing I know that I already knew that I know for CERTAIN now is that Sin is definitely passed from the original sin through the generations. Pain proves it. I thought about this:

Oftentimes in life, doing the right thing does hurt. But you know what? Most of the time, even if it hurts in the meantime, it doesn't hurt for long. It's like a vaccine; it's a sharp pain that goes away soon and ends up helping you much more than it hurts. Sacrificing to help someone for instance; it sucks at the moment, but you feel good about it later, plus more things like friendship and good will can stem from it. Or being patient; it sucks in the meantime, but that just makes it sweeter when the thing you've waited for comes to pass (assuming it does come to pass that is).

But sin; sin usually doesn't hurt like that. Yes, like doing the right thing, there may be a sharp pain at first. But the difference is, a lot of times the pain of sin will stay with you. It's residual. It's like a disease; it may cause discomfort at first, but the real pain grows as it progresses. Like premarital sex; it's sweet for a night, but then there's that memory when you're with your spouse, or that baby that you have that changes your life. It hurts, and it doesn't ever leave you.

When I think about the nature of sin and the pain it brings, for me at least, it echoes the belief in sin being passed down through the generations. The pain of sin is residual, and it's just a reflection of sin itself being residual.

So, as I contemplate (yes, I'm still considering doing something not very smart) trying my luck, I'm seeing that it's not a matter of choosing the sting of one thing over the sting of another; it's the sting of doing right versus the stigma of doing wrong. One thing I can recover from fairly quickly... I think. The other, it's probably gonna stay with me for quite some time, and not to my betterment... I think.

And that's my Big Hurt Thesis.