I learned a very valuable lesson about sunscreen yesterday.  My family is at the beach with me while I am preaching at a youth camp for Lakepointe Church in Dallas, TX.  Over the past 10 years we have developed a close relationship and I love their students and their leadership dearly.  They were gracious enough to allow my to bring my family along for the week, which makes me a better preacher and a happier person to be around.

We are spending hours outside and the reserves of energy inside my kids are amazing.  They swim and run and play and splash and dig, and never get tired or sleepy or thirsty or hungry.  It wears me out just watching them.

They finally laid down for a nap yesterday and my wife was reading a book, so I snuck down to the pool for a some quiet time of reflection and rest.  The next thing you know, I was asleep in a pool chair, lying on my stomach.  It didn’t feel like that long, but when I awoke, I was keenly aware of the burning sensation that covered my back and shoulders.  Even though I had applied sweat-proof 50 spf sunscreen, I still got burned.

I was burned because I fell asleep.  But sleep is not evil.  It is necessary for healthy living.  My problem was I fell asleep in the wrong place at the wrong time.  No matter how much sunscreen I applied, 45 minutes in the mid-day sun on a 90 degree day is a guaranteed bad idea.  Do you see the connection?

Sin is often defined as “missing the mark.”  And when we sin, we always fall short of perfection, many times due to our own poor planning, bad decisions, or lack of common sense.  And other times, we just forget to remember what we already know is true.

We know that yelling at our children or our spouse will create more contention, but we do it anyway.

We know that spending more than we can afford on something we don’t need will create stress and strife, but we buy it anyway.

We know that driving faster than the speed limit will attract state troopers, but we speed anyway.

We know that staying up too late makes us grumpy the next day, but we watch the late night movie anyway.

And we get burned.  I knew I shouldn’t fall asleep by the pool on a hot, sunny day, but somehow we all think we are the exception to the rule, and that we can cheat the odds and beat the consequences.  So we venture out with a spirit of arrogance (and copious amounts of sunscreen), and sure enough, the very thing we hoped would not happen, happens.  We pay the price.  In my case, it is a sunburn that requires lots of aloe vera.  In other cases, the consequences are much greater and last much longer.

Isn’t it funny how a few moments, just a few moments, can cause such great harm?  You can spend a lifetime building a family, a legacy, a ministry, or a reputation and it can be destroyed with one word, one indiscretion, one act of rebellion against God.  

Let us pray earnestly, daily, in all humility, that by God’s grace we might be men and women of integrity who daily submit ourselves to His protection, His Lordship, His authority, and His Word.  I don’t want get burned, but evidently I am not vigilant enough even with something as small as sunburn.  All the more reason to rely on the grace of God.