A Carton of Rocky Road

The other night I decided to eat some ice cream. I had purchased a half gallon of my favorite; Rocky Road, and I could hardly wait to sink my spoon into the awesome, delicious bowl of heavenly decadence. As I grabbed the carton out of the freezer, I discovered something odd. The carton of ice cream was empty. You couldn’t tell from the outside, but when I opened it up, I discovered the spoon of the bandit hidden inside. Apparently, my autistic son had raided the freezer in the middle of the night, devoured the entire half gallon, and then covered up the evidence by putting the carton back into the freezer just as if it had never been touched. When I confronted him about it, he just grinned from ear to ear. I decided that this kid is smart. He knows that if you are going to indulge in something you shouldn’t, probably better to cover up the evidence and hope no one notices.

Isn’t that the way the human heart operates? The Bible tells us that the “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” (Jer. 17:9). The pure fact of the matter is that you and I cannot trust our heart’s emotions, because when the opportunity for sin appears, the feelings of the heart will almost always deceive and lead us down a path filled with horrible consequences.

The pages of scripture are filled with examples of people trying to cover up their sin. Think of Adam who sinned and hid in the bushes when he heard the Lord approaching. Cain who killed Abel and then denied knowing what had happened. His words try to paint a weak picture of normalcy, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” he asks. But God knows. God has to rebuke him, by saying that “the voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground” (Gen 4:9-10).

Think of Moses who killed an Egyptian, and then buried him in the sand. Or the sons of Jacob, who sold their little brother, Joseph, and made up a story filled with lies to cover up their sinful actions. David who tried to get Uriah to sleep with his wife, so that no one would suspect that the King was the father of the unborn child. Or Judas who betrayed Jesus and then tried to desperately give back the thirty pieces of silver.

This truth is a hard one to hear. Your sin will eventually find you out. Try as you might to cover it up, or ignore it, or rationalize it in your heart – sin has a way of coming front and center. When you and I are in willful disobedience to the will of God, no amount of righteous self-talk will change the fact that sin is still sin. It’s like the old saying goes, “you can put lipstick on a pig, but that doesn’t change the fact that a pig it is still a pig.”

In my own life I have found this played out again and again. One lie becomes two, which leads to a whole series of lies. One night of passion becomes another and then more, until the guilt of disobeying God is clouded in the ecstasy of frantic moments. One drink becomes two or three or more. Then, when our sin becomes exposed, by the Holy Spirit prompting us, or by an unintended consequence becoming public, we act more surprised than anyone.

This is a problem for Christians in our day and age. We are so enamored with the positive gospel and are so afraid of offending folks that we fail to recognize when sin enters our hearts and minds. We are so used to doing religion in our pajamas on Sunday morning, that we forget to make the effort to seek out the house of the Lord. It is our CoVid Christianity. And like an empty carton of Rocky Road, it has the appearance of godliness, but no substance. I am reminded of what Paul wrote in the book of 2 Timothy, that in the end days, people will have a “form of godliness, although they deny its power.”

So where did my son learn to hide the evidence of his sin? What makes a autistic child with a kind, open heart, decide to cover up something he has done? The truth is he didn’t have to learn it, because it was a part of his heart already. Adam’s coverup is our coverup. His sin is our sin. And yours. Mine. Deny it if you will, but the evidence is there. The only thing I can do as his Dad is to try and model a life sensitive to the will and purpose of God and pray, this little boy sees enough of it, to follow in God’s path. Part of this is to be sure that when I sin, I need to own it. No excuses or platitudes. Call sin in my own life exactly what it is, and then have the courage to ask for forgiveness and repent. Hopefully, God will somehow allow me to raise my son without screwing up his life too much.

Oh, and by the way, I have decided to lock the freezer every night. What can I say? I like my Rocky Road.