Lingering & Looking Back

Ever found yourselves ashamedly (or unashamedly) content in your sin? I have. I can justify my own sin really well too. When we allow our hearts to marinate in sin, and allow sin to be our constant companion & surroundings, we can grow blind to the sinfulness of sin. It’s then, we are in great danger.

In the story of Lot, we see he and his family so desensitized to the evil and vileness of sin – that they do not even want to be separated from it. Like angels actually show up at their house and say, “we gotta go. This place is about to be blown off the map” (my paraphrase). If this had been me – I hope I would have grabbed the keys, loaded up the family and hit the road. You wouldn’t have had to tell me twice!

Yet, after Lot receives his warning, Scripture says he lingered. As though he wasn’t ready to leave this vile place. As if something was keeping him there. As if the sin that had surrounded him for so long, was something he felt he would miss. Lot has to literally be seized and forced and ripped from it. (Sometimes that’s the biggest grace God can afford us)

He lingered.

They are given specific instructions to go and not look back. This one may have been harder for me. I mean if I start hearing screams and thunder or see flashes of light I might be tempted to look back…or run faster. I think when Lots wife turned to look back it was different though. One, she was disobedient in doing it. Before the disobedience there was a heart issue that began long before angels showed up on the doorstep. Sin, like cancer, has stages. I think, after being submerged in sin for so long, growing desensitized to it and even accepting of it, Lots wife looked back because she knew she’d miss it. She looked back and I think her heart grieved a loss. Sin no longer grieved her. The loss of it did.

She looked back.

Still today we all struggle with lingering in our sin and looking back, maybe longing for our sin. I’ve spoken to many a people who aren’t ready to surrender their lives to Christ because they aren’t ready to give up their sin. I admire them for one thing- they understand that following Christ means total surrender and not just choosing what sins you’ll surrender and what’s sins you’ll cling tightly. At least they understand the severity & extreme weight of the choice.

Not sure if you struggled with lingering or looking back. Either way, I pray that there are  people in your life, like Abraham, who plead for mercy on your behalf. I’ve had & have those people in my life. Those people are heroes.