Rachel Whisman

My classroom pencil sharpener broke. Understandably to some, this is not a big deal. Yet, to a teacher, it is a necessary tool in the classroom. I tried to see what was stuck and saw the head of a pencil. I waited until after school to get it out with scissors, but that didn’t work. I meant to take it home but forgot. The following day was an adjustment for my students because they had to use either a handheld sharpener or the other automatic sharpener that was on life support. They didn’t enjoy that and quickly missed the ease of the automatic one, and so did I. 

I finally took it home where I had a screwdriver, but to my dislike, the angle to get the screws out was unforgiving. Approaching it with tweezers eventually solved the problem, and “voila”, out came that ugly shard piece of a pencil you see in the picture above. 

Such a small piece that I had never seen before. This little sucker is what caused the disturbance. In light of eternity, absolutely nothing. Presently though, for forty-eight hours, it was annoying. It was bothersome being disturbed by the coarse sound of the other ineffective sharpener (just imagine a coffee bean grinder in your classroom going off at the beginning and end of the day and you have a better idea of the screeching noise). 

Holding that little itty-bitty piece in my hand struck me with its resemblance to sin. 

It is easy to see the sins that are like a blazing fire, destroying everything in its wake. However, do we as easily recognize the destruction of the less robust and more “respectable sins? 

One of my students probably thought, “Oh, I bet I can sharpen it just a little more. I wonder how small I can get it so I can still use it.” Then, the pencil was lost in the vortex of the sharpener and there were ramifications to that seemingly innocent action. 

We try to handle our temptations to sin similarly. Yet, the various results can lead us into the sins of bitterness, anxiety, anger, lust, impurity, discontentment, gossip, and more, if we are not on guard (Galatians 5:19-21, 1 Peter 4:3). 

James speaks to this further in James 1:13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” 

More times than not, we grant ourselves a lot more esteem in our strength and self-control by thinking we can control the sin in our lives rather than trusting in what God says to our battle with the flesh. It is our desire that blinds us. We see it, we want it, we sin to get it. Holiness is not proving that you can handle yourself in your own strength to still enjoy the things of the world more than God Himself. We are not trying to get better at playing around with sin nonchalantly and acting unfazed. We are charged to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you,” (Colossians 3:5). Paul does not say to “tame it” or “let it live,” but to “put it to death.” Paul continues and tells us to, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.” Simply put, holiness is putting on Christ’s righteousness by His works and living that out by His power. This is hope! We can “put to death” and “put on” because of what Christ’s life, death, and resurrection has done for us and it is worth it. 

It is worth it because the whole point is about giving God the love He deserves. It is about seeing Him for who He is and enjoying Him. Jesus shared this in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Do you not want to behold God more clearly? The people who get to do this are those who are “pure in heart”. Yes, Christ has made us holy not just to identify with His holiness, but to also live it out as stated here in 1 Peter 1:14-16: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” When we allow things that seem inconsequential at the time to take root, they begin to slowly sap away the enjoyment of God and lead to death as James said earlier. Just like that little pencil did to my sharpener. It had to be removed. It could not coexist and work. Let us do the same with the temptations and sins in our lives—remove them no matter how small or insignificant they seem. Sin is sin, and it is what nailed Jesus to the cross. Don’t make friends with your sin, but put it to death, so that we can relish in deeper communion and fellowship with God. He is worth it.

“He (satan) would either stupefy us or frighten us. He either keeps the mirror of the law from our view, or else he writes out our sins in such crimson colors that we sink in the quicksand of despair.”

-Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment