One of the worst effects of sin is myopia – nearsightedness. I don’t mean our eyes, but our perspective. Sin makes us become preoccupied with triviality. Oh, how easily we forget the big picture!

In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky describes one scene where a university student commits premeditated murder. Immediately, he’s summoned to the police station. He thinks he’s life is over only to find out that he was summoned because he failed to pay some debts. Although, normally, this would’ve been very distressing since he was very poor, he is overjoyed! Why? Because he was a murderer, and yet he was only accused of failing to pay a few bills….

Aren’t we in the same situation as Christians? We have sinned against the Almighty God. Our punishment was eternal condemnation in hell. And yet, Christ has saved us from it. But O how we forget that and worry about a credit card debt we cannot pay! Or a promotion we did not get. Or a house we could not close on…

Aren’t most, if not all complaints, we have because we have forgotten the big picture? We got preoccupied with triviality? What are some things that you would still be concerned about if you thought your life was over, only to find out that you get to live on?

Try living today as if you were on a death row. Then, at the end of the day, allow yourself to know that not only are you acquitted of murder but are rewarded Christ’s inheritance! Because it is true!

PH