And William Justice lists in his book seven ways that we lie to ourselves about guilt and about sin. Does it sound familiar? The first one he calls projection. He says this goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Adam sinned and Adam took it like a man: he blamed it on his wife. “I just fell into that activity.” That’s what we say. “You know, he made me do this,” or “She—because I was, you know-” and you want to blame it on someone else or the situation or, “I just kind of have that language and that temper. That’s just the way I am, God.” You see, we deal in projection.
Another way we explain away sin and lie to ourselves, Justice says, is by rationalize. You know what the word “rationalize” means? Rational lies. We know in our heart it’s wrong; we know in our mind it’s wrong, but guess what we do. “Well, you know, I’m in a situation, I’m on this business trip. No one’s looking,” or “I can sneak over here.” We rationalize.
Also, we play the comparison game. “Well, you know, I’m pretty spiritual. Look at this guy at work. He calls himself a Christian, but he’s mean, and the language he uses, the places he goes like-” What is our standard? It’s Jesus. It’s not me; it’s not you. It is Christ. So, comparison.
Also, we play the suppression game, Justice says. The suppression game. We try to suppress these sins and all this guilt. What if we all go to a swimming pool right now and I was to throw every person here 7 beach balls that were pumped up-they were so tight-and I said, “O.K. Keep every beach ball submerged.” We would say, “Oh, submerge it? Uh-oh, there’s no–” and it would pop up; we’d submerge it again and it would pop up. And we would get so frustrated going back and forth.
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