#122. Redefining sin (or how I justified doing drugs)

Until I was a senior in college, I was a fairly clean living type of person. I didn’t drink alcohol. I didn’t smoke cigarettes. I didn’t smoke pot. I didn’t even really swear much. All in all, it was a pretty simple life, until I started taking drugs. In the midst of a destructive relationship I started doing ecstasy. I took it at raves mostly so that I could dance for 8 hours without falling apart. And the reason I was able to do this and stomach the shame it introduced into my pastor’s kid heart was that I redefined what the word “drugs” meant.

I decided subconsciously that a drug was something you snorted or shot. Cocaine was a drug. Heroin with its needle was a drug. Ecstasy wasn’t. It was just a colorful little pill with a silly logo stamped onto it. So in my head it became harmless and the shame subsided significantly.

That is stupid. I was stupid. I agree, but what I did still happens a lot for other Christians. You see, at some point we realize that we can’t follow all the rules. We want to, we desperately try, but we keep sinning and sinning and sinning. So to feel a little better we start redefining what sin is. We start softening it with our words. Instead of saying, “premarital sex” we say “casual sex.” Instead of “illegal drugs” we say “recreational drugs.”

This post might be miles away from you and that’s awesome. I applaud your honest approach to sin. But maybe this hits home. Maybe right now, instead of saying you’re having an “emotional affair” with a girl at work, you’re telling yourself, “I just have a flirty personality.” Or you don’t have a “drinking problem,” you’re a “social drinker.”

There are a thousand ways to do this, but at the end of the day, sin is sin. And we’ll never find peace when we try to grasp it with ever shifting definitions.