Smog or Pollution?

Exerpt from "Pure Joy" by Alicia Britt Chole

A murky, gray, haze lurks over the city.
The locals call it “smog.” Visitors know it is pollution.

Some optimistically wait for the sun to come out and the winds to change. Others guess correctly that the sun has been blocked out and unless choices change, the “smog” will endure.

We smile at such obvious rewriting of reality, but we need to smile cautiously. Most of us have a keen ability to edit reality and excuse ourselves from responsibility.

We call slander, “sharing.”
Toying with temptation is dismissed as, “harmless curiosity.”
Lack of discipline is justified under the label of “temperament.”
Self is dressed up and renamed “focused.”

How easy it is to deceive ourselves and accept poison in our lives.

Sin is similar to pollution. It is man-made through the power of choice. Unless dealt with aggressively, sin gathers, deepens, and obscures Truth. Calling it “smog” will not make it going away. Only when we acknowledge sin for the pollution it really is in our lives can the clean up effort begin.

God Himself stands ready to champion that clean up effort. His assistance arrives the very moment we move from denial to repentance.