James Abram Garfield was a lay preacher and principal of his denominational college. They say he was ambidextrous and could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other. If true, that’s pretty impressive!

In 1880, he was elected president of the United States, but after only six months in office he was shot in the back with a revolver. He never lost consciousness. At the hospital, the doctor probed the wound with his little finger to seek the bullet (sterilization had been preached, but not widely practiced at the time). He couldn’t find it, so he tried a silver-tipped probe. Still he couldn’t locate the bullet.

They took Garfield back to Washington, D.C. Despite the summer heat, they tried to keep him comfortable. He was growing very weak. Teams of doctors tried to locate the bullet, probing the wound over and over. In desperation they asked Alexander Graham Bell who, at the time, was working on a little device called the telephone, to see if he could locate the metal inside the president’s body. He came, he sought, and he too failed.

The president hung on through July, through August, but in September he finally died – not from the wound but from infection! The repeated probing, which the physicians thought would help the man, eventually killed him.

So it is with people who dwell too long on their sin and refuse to release it to God.

Each of us sins. There are no exceptions to this truth. God’s Holy Spirit reminds us when we have done or said something that has been hurtful or has undermined the dignity of another person. We thank God for this grace and work of the Holy Spirit.

Some mistakes are less serious than others. But, nonetheless, we all sin and sin has a deleterious effect upon the sinner and the one against whom the sin has been perpetrated.

We know this to be true in our own lives. But what do we do with this truth? Do you continue to hang on to your sin, continue to be chained to the weight of the sin, drowning in anxiety or regret or anger? Do you continue to pummel yourself month after month, year after year, over the mistakes you have made? Do you continue to berate others who have sinned against you, probing deeper and deeper? Or do you release it to God? And by releasing it to God, experience the healing that takes place.

Our Lord took upon himself the sin of the world for all time. The all-sufficient sacrifice of God the Son at the cross paid the wage of sin. He who knew no sin took upon himself the sin of humanity. This is the truth. Jesus came to testify to that truth. Jesus is the Truth.

Whatever your sin, your burden, release it to God. Stop beating yourself up about what you have done, or what someone else has done to you. Stop the probing and the toxic infection that result. We are indeed to learn from our mistakes, our sins, and as a result grow in holiness and the ability to fight off temptation in our lives. The Holy Spirit gifts us with “sight” to see the wrong of our sin, and to know the grace and mercy of the forgiveness God has gifted us through Jesus Christ.

Release it to God. You have been set free!

Pastor Randy