Seek to Overkill in the Killing of Sin!

About 6 weeks or so ago, the local utility company, PPL, sent contractors to take down trees in the neighborhood of our church facility. And take down trees they did!  Their reason for doing so was to keep the 75 foot right of way of their high voltage electrical wires clear of trees.

According to PPL spokesman, Paul Wirth, "There has been a change in the way PPL is dealing with high-voltage transmission lines.Those lines are key to the electrical grid. They serve a wide region. If a tree would potentially fall on that line, it would impact potentially thousands of businesses and homes for potentially a long time. So, for the last several years, PPL has been removing more trees from rights of way than in the past (go to Lanacaster online to see more on this story)."

OK. I get that. We don't want to lose power from a tree falling on an electrical wire. But when I saw all the trees which were being removed (some not much taller than me), I just had to scratch my head as I wondered,  "How is that tree now or ever going to be a threat to those wires?"  Many a person used the word, "overkill" in referring to what PPL did in our neighborhood. And I would most definitely have to agree. 

As I thought of this ... I thought of how most of us Christians treat temptation and sin in an entirely different manner. Instead of going the route of overkill in making sure that sin is rooted out ... we have grown casual about sin. When temptation comes knocking, we often give in without giving it a second thought (or much thought). Jesus offered us HIS perspective on how we should treat the "avenues" which lead to sin. In Matthew 5, as Jesus is warning about the sin of lust, he makes this startling statement, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell." Now Jesus is not mandating plucking out an eye if we give in to the temptation of lust. He is using a figure of speech (hyperbole) to teach us that we need to look at how temptation enters our lives ... and remove those avenues so that we don't give in and sin. So if drunkenness is a sin you easily give in to, don't keep a bottle of rum on hand. If gluttony, don't be eating at a different smorgasboard each night (which would be easy to do here in Lancaster County). If lust, don't be alone with a computer for any length of time. 

So PPL may or may not be guilty of overkill in the clearing of their right aways. But most of us could take a lesson from PPL as we seek to remove sin's avenues in our lives. 

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj