Human Nature
Me having a ‘sin nature’ might be responsible for all that is wrong in the world. Increasingly, I find the idea that the ‘core of who I am is evil’ to be deeply problematic. I know I need the intervention of divine love, but when I see myself as only born with a sin nature, my default understanding of original self is that I am marred, deficient, and incapable of giving or receiving love. This concept that I am inherently outside of God’s love carries an unfathomable amount of baggage. And it shapes my expectation of others — I remember joking with fellow students at Bible College at the birth of a number of sons in the mid 90s — that we were populating the planet with ‘little sinners’. We all reflect on dumb things we’ve said or done in our 20s, but as I pause on that for moment, what an horrific expectation to set for my child— even in jest. And I wonder how much of my parenting has been shaped by this assumption — that without other-worldly assistance, they are unable to exhibit an