Have Chick-fil-A sauce in your pocket?

Ever had a laundry disaster? My most recent occurred just a few weeks ago. I threw a load of my son’s clothing into the washer, then the dryer, including three pieces of quality outerwear. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Until I opened the dryer door.

Perched near the door were two packets of Chick-fil-A sauce. “Oh, no!” I thought. “Please tell me they didn’t leak during the full heat of the cycle and bake sauce into the clothes in the load.”

The sauce had leaked. And dried. And stained.

Thankfully, I had a full bottle of Shout handy. After checking pockets and not finding any more packets, I sprayed each and every dot and blob of sauce on each article of clothing. When finished, I held my breath that the stain remover would work its magic, and stuck it all back in the washing machine, this time along with a few pieces of my husband’s clothing that he wanted washed as well. When the wash cycle was finished, I didn’t see any evidence of the sauce on any clothing, so I confidently transferred the wet clothes to the dryer and spun them dry for the second time. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Until I opened the dryer door again.

Perched near the door were two more packets of Chick-Fil-A sauce! I couldn’t believe it happened again, this time soiling my husband’s clothing along with my son’s clothing! Out came the bottle of Shout again. It took forever to spray each dot and blob of sauce. I could not believe I was doing this a second time, and I could not believe I had spread the problem onto my husband’s clothes as well!

I got to thinking about sin.

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. (Proverbs 10:9)

We can each hide sin for a while, but eventually when the heat of life comes along, our sin becomes exposed. And when the sin is exposed, it takes quite some time to clean up the consequences. We suffer embarrassment, hurt people we love, and damage the reputation of the Savior we say we serve. It happens to each of us. Sometimes, however, we get sloppy. Instead of ripping the sin out by the roots, we toss some damage control at it instead. We apologize to the person we love and smooth things over, but we don’t stop the sin.

We still have the same sin in our pockets.

Guess what happens? The heat of life exposes our sin again, and the next time, consequences are even worse than the first time. Happens 100% of the time.

Lately I have been cranky and wondering why. I started a new semester and my tone has been sharp at home. I haven’t been able to figure out why, but I could hear the curtness. Last week I realized that in the busyness of life, I had been shortening my prayer times and cutting out the daily habit of carefully taking stock of sin in my heart — forgiving people and confessing my sin. Things had built up. I was clogged.

I had sin in my pockets.

Each of us can hide sin, and each of us have done so. We can hide spending, computer searches, photos on phones, food consumption, vicious thought patterns and improper relationships, all while hiding behind a facade of doing just fine. Hiding always leads to a leak, however. Whenever we are hiding anything, we have Chick-fil-A sauce in our pockets and the heat of life will eventually expose the sin.

And we can’t shout the sin out.

Sin is only removed through the painful process of confession, asking forgiveness, repenting and then walking out the consequences with integrity and humility. I tell my kids all the time that obedience is gut wrenching. I get it; I really do! But disobedience is always harder, 100% of the time.

Let’s not hide sin, thinking we can keep it like a pet.

When tempted to do so, submit to God’s power instead of yours, and turn away. Find a safe friend you can be accountable to and call as needed. Whatever you need to do, don’t tuck the sin away somewhere and carry it around hidden from sight.

Picture Explanation: Forget the ketchup. We consume Chick-fil-A sauce on our fries in this house, but we will no longer be storing any extras in our pockets.

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