We don’t like the word “sin.” We don’t think of ourselves as bad people, and so we don’t think of ourselves a sinners—or, at least, not as bad as that other person.
But as we’ve mentioned before, “sin” basically means missing the target. It’s a little stronger term for “not perfect.” That’s why we need grace, because none of us is perfect. Without getting into the long-debated discussion of original sin with its related backdrop of Calvinism vs. Arminianism, most of us would agree that it is human nature to mess things up, because we’re just human.
Today I had Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting. Zoom exhaustion is real. I needed some sustenance before starting, so I made what has become my usual breakfast. For digestive reasons that (trust me) you do not want details about, I had to swear off coffee about three weeks ago. I’ve been subsisting on hot tea—not as good at waking me up, but I fortunately like it. So I made my usual cuppa, sat down at the computer, and took my first sip.
Which tasted funny.
The meeting had already started, so I kept going, taking a sip every so often, thinking maybe I still had a bad taste in my mouth from not having given myself enough time after waking up. Just keep drinking, I thought, and eventually it will taste right.
But it never did. It got so bad, I just poured the rest of it out.
“Probably let it steep too long,” I thought.
Then I remembered.
As an experiment, yesterday I made a cup of iced coffee, thinking that maybe that would be easier on my stomach. (That didn’t work out, but that’s another story.) Did I mention that we have a Keurig? I use the Keurig as a quick tea kettle, since it makes hot water at 192 degrees really fast and (I think) makes the tea less bitter since it doesn’t scald the leaves.
Since I haven’t made coffee in three weeks (until yesterday), I have lost the habit of making sure no pod remains in the Keurig before I run hot water through it.
So this morning I made tea with second-run coffee water.
I was blaming the tea, blaming the Keurig, even blaming the cup. The real problem? When I worked in radio, we called doofus errors a “short between the earphones.”
I’ll bet you have “I’m just human” stories too.
That’s why we need grace.
Peace.