White Noise

Matt Bassford is a fellow blogger and gospel preacher. Until recently, he preached at the Jackson Heights church in Columbia, Tennessee, where Norma Jean and I lived and labored for 11 years.

Matt also is batttling ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease.

During the past several months Matt has shown incredible strength, courage and resolve, as he has continued to minister in the Word. Through his blog, HisExcellentWord, Matt has inspired, motivated and encouraged us all to a higher level of living as he has candidly written about life and death. Sickness and suffering. Joy and pain. Mercy and grace. And the hope of eternal life.

The piece recently posted on facebook should give every pastor, preacher, parent and Christian pause to examine their heart of hearts about sins we may have allowed in our lives.

We offer it without further comment or commentary.

–Ken

So apparently I have pneumonia and a partially collapsed lung. Strange; I don’t feel that badly off. This is not merely machismo. I legitimately don’t feel much different than I usually do.

The culprit is ALS. At some point during every day, every part of my body hurts, so a stitch in my side doesn’t attract attention. Trouble breathing? That’s every day too. ALS causes a white noise of chronic illness that masks the symptoms of acute illness.

The same is true of the practice of sin. It’s a chronic illness too, of the spirit rather than of the body. It distorts our character and our spiritual perceptions, but its familiarity hides the significance of the change from us. What’s more, the malevolent white noise of transgression keeps us from recognizing the danger of new sins when they arise.

Beware, then, of sins that have become comfortable and familiar. We accept them as part of our fallen state. We excuse them because of the shortcomings of others.

This comfort, though, is nothing other than the comfort of pneumonia as we pass imperceptibly from life to death. Sin is an emergency. Your porn habit is an emergency. Your trust in riches is an emergency. The more you embrace these and other sins, the more surely they will destroy you.

Fear them. Hate them. Fling them away from you as you would a viper or scorpion. Now is the time, not tomorrow or the next new year. Unless you act, the white noise of your sin will lull you into continued sleep.