The Fall

Genesis 3:8-15

However you look at it, whether you believe in a literal Fall, a doctrine of original sin or original goodness, the fact is that we live in a broken world.

I know that I'm not great at facing up to my own sinfulness. I wander backwards and forwards along a kind of continuum between thinking I'm pretty much OK really and being convinced of my inability to make any kind of useful or meaningful contribution to the world. 

I don't have a problem seeing brokenness in the world, in my nation, in my community. There are times when I read or watch the news and feel almost physically overwhelmed by how awful things are and yet I rarely look at myself in the same way. Even when I'm taking communion, the one time in my protestant, non-conformist practice of church when I'm supposed to be proactively thinking about what a sinner I am, I have a tendency to wander off.

I suspect there are a few things at play here. The first is that I've grown up spiritually in a church context which emphasises grace - God giving us the things we don't deserve (to paraphrase Ishmael). The second is that I didn't 'become a Christian' and the older I get the more I wonder whether that means that I haven't fully grasped what I've been 'saved' from. The third is that I am a product of my society and my generation which have become all about what's right for me, finding myself, being true to who I am. And any Christian who tells you they're immune to that kind of thing is telling you porkies.

I had a conversation with a friend recently about the value of confession, in the Catholic sense. She couldn't see any merit in it, but I wonder whether for me confession might literally be good for the soul.