When Sin Runs Deep, Our Patience Should Run Deeper Still

When we moved here, the woman who lived in this home before us had a garden that was well-loved and tended to. Since moving in, I’ve tried to keep up the legacy of her garden. I’ve failed, and it’s gotten overgrown more times than I can count. I know it will never match the glory hers must have had. 

However, there was a huge green, leafy bush in it that I detested. For the majority of the year, it was the equivalent of a stack of dry, brown sticks. I thought it was dead. Then once a year for a few weeks, it grew into a huge bush with hundreds of bright green leaves—but no flowers. I waited and watched and not a single flower blossomed on it. It was simply a pile of leaves taking up half my flowerbed. After our first summer, I decided to pull it out.

Except, I couldn’t.

I tried cutting it down to the lowest part of the roots, but it grew back. In the end, it took the longsuffering of my husband digging and hauling the plant out of my garden, root by root. 

Sin is very similar. The sin we see at the surface often isn’t the original sin that led to the behavior we see. Romans 1 tells us that it begins with ingratitude towards God as our Creator which then becomes a slow darkening of our minds to God’s obvious commands, presence, and existence. As we turn our faces away from God and blindfold ourselves to him, our hearts grow harder and sin births more sins.

I often come with a tongue full of venom in an attempt to shame the sin out of others. If I write a scathing Facebook post, they’ll see their grave error. If I make passive aggressive remarks to prob at their pride, they’ll feel ashamed and change their ways.

With sin, we often wish to come with our gardening gloves, give one quick heave, and rip the sin from the hearts of others in an instance. Yet we forget how sin starts small and weaves its brambles deep into our souls. We forget that it takes the touch of the Perfect, Sinless Man to cleanse us of our sins.

In all of it, we need to guard against trusting in our own efforts, abilities, disciplines, and timings. We need to lean on God’s ways of sanctification. Where sin runs deep, our patience should always run deeper.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t place boundaries or allow ourselves to be trodden on like old carpets when someone continues in unrepentant sin. It doesn’t mean we can’t remind and proclaim to one another the truths of Scripture. Rather, this is a call to trust change into the hands of the only One who can change hearts, and to remember that yelling matches or scathing, passive-aggressive comments don’t change people. Those who are stuck in sin need the saving work of Christ and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. 

When our hearts ache and we feel that temptation to use our own sneaky tactics to change someone, we must bring it to God in prayer. When able, we can bring the truth firmly and kindly to those who need it—though other times, for our own well-being, we need to trust even that work into the hands of someone else (if the person continually sins against you), or perhaps professionals need to get involved to better assist you.

Sometimes this waiting and trusting is even harder than shoving the truth into someone’s face. It’s hard to sit back while someone we care about is being choked by sin. We want to do something. Yet sometimes, the best work we can do is stand back and let the Father’s discipline and the Holy Spirit’s conviction take the stage while we pray for a miracle.

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