Punctuation is a funny thing, isn’t it? There’s so much that can be said without any additional words. For example an exclamation mark can say “yes, excited, can’t wait, or I’m terrified!” A period says “it is finished, done, over, moving on to what’s next.” and a comma says “But wait, there’s more, it is not over, we’re not done yet”. Commas are very important, but sometimes we use them when it’s not best. I know personally I’ve always been a little comma happy. Most of my papers in high school said that at the top “to many commas”. That’s a fine critic for a teacher to make, but what happens when we put to many commas in life?
Allow me to try and explain what I mean. When I chose to follow Jesus there were certain things that had to be left behind. I made a commitment to love Jesus with everything I have and if I’m choosing to give part of me to these sins here and those sins there, than I’m not being faithful or obedient. Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying the expectation is to be perfect all the time, because that is not going to happen in this broken world we live in. No what I’m talking about are those little pet sins that we think we can just keep on the side and it won’t effect our walk with God. The things that we do with full knowledge of how wrong they are and sometimes even rationalized with “it’ll be okay this once because God forgives us, right?”. Premeditated sins, if you will. I have more of these than I’d care to admit and honestly I’d rather not talk about it at all. Because to talk about it means I have to admit that sometimes my decisions show that I’d rather have a moment of fleeting happiness or satisfaction than to be in close community with the creator of the universe who has invited me into a wonderful friendship*.
It may be different for others but in my experience these sins aren’t new ones that showed up after I started being a Jesus follower, oh no, these are sins that have caught my eye since long before I met Jesus. They’re sins that when I chose to follow Jesus there should have been a period after, but I put a comma. There should have been a “Stop. We’re moving on.” but I chose to leave that door open, just in case. One of the hardest parts about letting God put a period in life is admitting that this is something you can’t do alone.
I’d love to tie this up with a pretty little bow about how I fixed it and now I’m perfect and life is easy and beautiful. Unfortunately though you’ve met me in the middle and I haven’t figured this all out yet. My soul longs to follow Christ with everything in me but my flesh is still holding on to commas. I pray daily for forgiveness and strength and ask God to help me love him and know him more. And even though I can’t always see it and it sure doesn’t always feel like it, the more I say no to my flesh the closer to Jesus my soul becomes.
I don’t know if that makes any since outside of my head, but if it did I want to ask you two questions:
1. Where have you put a comma when it should have been a period?
2. Are you going to ask for help in changing that?
Well, that’s all God had put on my heart for now. Praying blessings for you and if you want updates on my adventure with God feel free to subscribe.
Rebekah Sartain
*from 1 Corinthians 1:9 NLT
