Serve Somebody

     There used to be a heavy vine of poison ivy that snaked its way up a tall black locust tree in our backyard. It was almost as thick as my wrist, and with little furry feelers reaching out for purchase. Just a little creepy. I thought about pulling it down, but I'd had a horrible experience with poison ivy the year before and I knew better. So I just wacked at the vine close to the dirt and cut it off from its' roots.

     The Church gets a little twisted up about sin. Like sin is the big boogey monster that lives under the bed. Like it has power. 

     Sin is really nothing more than fruit. And, like fruit, it isn't the first thing that happened on the scene. It is the product of obedience. Somewhere along the line, we chose who to serve. We are constantly choosing to obey something, whether it be God, Satan or our flesh. And we are left with the fruit of our choosing.

     Addiction is not a disease. It is the product of many choices. We become dependent on the effect of the choice. What do you want to be addicted to? Either way, one will end up giving you power and the other taking it away.

     I could have pulled the vine down and destroyed it all at once. Poison ivy is icky, so I just let it die a slow and agonizing death after separating it from its' source of life. I didn't need to touch it. We don't have to touch sin to kill it. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Just choose Who to obey.