Sin is like snow
My favortie time to run is when its snowing. This may seem crazy to some, but when it snows I feel a closeness to God that I cannot describe. His presense seems to envelope my soul as I run through the tiny tender mercies that shower the ground.
Whenever I run, no matter the season I find running to be a source of consistent revelation. Running is a physical workout, but for me its more so a spiritual workout. As I run I am taught life lessons (I feel) that I could not have learned in any other way. President Deiter F. Uchtdorf learns life's lessons by flying, I learn them by running.
If you ever see me running and typing something on my phone, I am not texting, I am writing down little lessons God teaches me as I jog. One such lesson is the reason for this post…
While running after a snow storm some time ago, I learned that sin is like snow! This may seem crazy to some, but let me explain.
The deeper the snow the more traction I have when running, and the more stable I become. On the flip side, when the snow is shallow and slick I have a much higher chance of falling.
So it is with sin.
Have you ever been in a situation where you were tempted to compromise your standards? I have! Some situations may not be difficult at all, while other situations tempt you and I to our very max. Why is this?
I have learned, that when the type of sin we are tempted by is well beyond any we have ever committed, the situation is not difficult to avoid. But when the type of sin is just beyond sins we have already committed, we are more likely to give in.
If we have never physically hurt someone, the temptation to kill another is completely off the table. At that moment, it is like we are running through a foot of snow. We have been tempted to fall, but because the sin is so far beyond our comprehension, the sin gives us stablilty and allows us to pass through unharmed.
Now lets say (in our past) we have passionately kissed our girlfriend or boyfriend. That is like running on snow that is shallow and slick. We may not fall, but the chances of falling are very high!
Passionate kissing will not keep us out of the temple, but this is one of the slickest roads our generation is tempted to run. The chances of falling are so high, that the reasoning behind such an act is not worth the cost of the possible consequences. The catch is, when we feed our natural man we "will not be able to think or even reason properly because (we) will have lost the Spirit of the Lord.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith, Chapter 18: Stay on the Lord’s Side of the Line). Instead we are thinking with our emotions, which often leads to poor decision making.
When I run in the snow, I always try and run where I have sufficient traction. One day you may see me hopping sporatically down a side walk. I do this not because I am dancing (I actually do dance sometimes. But not in snow! haha) but because I am hopping from one deep patch of snow to another.
Depending on the impact… One fall could determine how my body feels for years.
So it is with sin.
In closing… I believe that running in snow is beneficial to the physical body (especially the stabilizer muscles around the knees and ankles), and I hope you have learned some techniques on how to run in physical snow. But more importantly I hope you have learned a litte more about the sidewalk of sin. A sidewalk that is slippery, seductive, and covered in snow as red as scarlet.