Sin seems to happen in cycles.
That's precisely what scares me.
The further into my adult life I go and the more I hear peoples' stories I find that every family has its broken pieces. Every family has its skeletons in the closet. We tend to look at the outside layer of families, the neat and tidy layer that seems to look even prettier on Facebook, and compare it to everything we know about our own. We get sad. Discontent. Comparison saps us of our perspective. It saps us of our joy.
But dig down deeper, beyond the Facebook exterior. Spend a week in that household, maybe even just a day and you'll find something in that family that closely resembles your own. That secret sin, that shameful addiction, that unresolved hurt from years ago. We all do our best to slap on a happy, loving face and live in spite of it, though the aftershock of sin comes in waves and each family member feels it in his or her own way. Some families fight, each carefully protecting themselves as they shoot fiery arrows with words aimed at each other. Then isolation, silence, estrangement. Some families avoid, terrified of naming the hurt. Consequences and distrust follow along with a fake smile and tight grip on comfort.
There's this idea out there that is paralyzing. This idea that sin will come back to bite you and your future family. That your children will be destined to follow the path of sin their forefathers lived. That if you were a victim you are destined to victimize. It's the what-goes-around-comes-around mentality.
I get the idea of consequences. It's biblical, it's reasonable. Sins ripples go wider and further than just the one who committed the sin.
But where do restoration and redemption fit??
Each person comes from a broken family. Even church going families with a mom and a dad can be broken. Even families that love each other. It's the response to brokenness that determines healing and holiness.
When unresolved, unhealed, and shamefully hidden,these broken pieces fester and grow. They grow, infected and swollen and painful. And these broken pieces become the weapon with which to harm others. Unfortunately this is the most common response we see to brokenness. This is the kind of brokenness that is used to fuel the fear of generational sin.
What if we took those broken pieces and submitted them over to the hands of our Father? What if we admitted our brokenness, walked into the wound rather than away from it, and asked for healing? The Almighty Creator is the only One who can make ugly beautiful again. He is the only One who can re-create. What is placed in His hands is never wasted. This is the response- the beautiful, repentant response that blesses God's heart. This is the response He longs for.
I am choosing different. I am a daughter/sister/granddaughter of a loving (yet broken) family. Aren't we all? I don't believe in the destiny of generational sin because I know the living, active, loving Healer. I give him my broken pieces and in exchange I find restoration. Sometimes it's painful. Yet with Him, scars are transformed to evidences of grace. Aches are becoming stories of redemption.
For myself and my family, I am choosing different.
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