Valerie is a 42-year-old, single, Reformed Christian lady who lives in Baltimore. She doesn't remember a time
before she knew and loved Jesus, but she does remember accepting John Calvin into her heart in March of 2000.
Valerie is a member of Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis.
Though her career aspiration is to be a housewife, Valerie has not yet found anyone suitable who wishes to hire
her for employment in that field (or, more properly, anyone suitable has not found her), so in the meantime she
earns her daily bread working in communications -- editing, writing, print design and website management.
Ye who think of sin but lightly, Nor suppose the evil great, Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the Sacrifice appointed! See Who bears the awful load! 'Tis the Word, the Lord's Anointed, Son of Man, and Son of God.
Think not, dear reader, that I intend to contradict the sentiment of that stanza from the lovely hymn "Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted." If you are thinking of sin too lightly, then you indeed require whacking upside the head with something heavy and wooden and cruciform.
But there's an equal and opposite danger in give sin too much weight -- to view it as the immovable object. Happily, the same prescription cures this malady of misunderstanding. Looking at the cross, seeing that the Lord Jesus really has borne the awful load fully and effectively, we can understand that the burden is no longer ours. We can stop panicking that the world will come to an end because we've done that or because we've done that again. More importantly, when we see at the cross what He willingly suffered for us, we can stop panicking that He's somehow now going to get fed up and change His disposition to one other than extraordinary love and grace.
Compared to the trifle we want to excuse it as, sin is a dark and heavy and dreadful thing. But compared to the abundant strength of God's grace, it is indeed a trifle.
"And all the wickedness in the world that man might work or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal in the sea." (William Langland, c. 1400)
