Jesus has taught me a lot about life and the why behind my own traumatic experiences. I now understand and can identify sin as the leading cause of all my internal suffering. I was taught that when we disobey God and choose to live in sin, sin becomes the driving force behind every outcome created. Sin is evil and has its own motives. There is nothing good or authentic about it. Yet it is destroying the lives of everyone on this planet.

Take the unity of marriage, for example. You can easily spot when sin is driving your decisions; you think only about what you can gain from the marriage. Financial security, status, power, a trophy wife, fear of being alone, infatuation, pregnancy, your image, social pressures, making someone jealous, needing to be rescued, control, reputation, etc. But once married, the reality of who we really are, and who we married, surfaces; if we aren't entering marriage the way God intended, it fails. God is a supernatural creator, and when we listen to and obey His ways, the outcome will be real and beautiful; there is no other alternative. Accept that when we don't obey God, we give the sin in our bodies the power to create our outcomes and experiences. Every selfish want and desire is the root cause of all the suffering being created in our lives. We can't experience anything real or beautiful when selfish motives and desires drive what we want to happen. How many couples do you see who are really in love and deeply committed to one another? Reality is sad when the only way to see what true love looks like is in a romantic movie.

However, when we let God renew our minds, we stop letting sin shape our life experiences. When we hand the power back to the Creator, life stops being about some desired outcome. When God is doing life with you, life takes on a completely different meaning. It's not about what I can achieve or gain. Real meaning and purpose are revealed, true fulfillment is felt, and it has everything to do with who God is and how personal and intentional He is. If you don't obey His ways, you are missing the very reason you were created to be here.

Learning the truth about this planet's storyline has been the most important information I've ever received. Since the beginning of time, we've all been given free will. It's up to us to decide where we want to reside. We can remain in darkness, or choose to follow Jesus and abide in His light. The only way to return to God is to follow Jesus through obedience. He is the only human who knows the way out of darkness and teaches it to us. We have to make a choice. We can keep letting sin lead our lives, or we can start trusting God and obeying Christ's teachings. That means stopping selfish motives and desires from leading our lives. Biblically, that means choosing to "pick up righteousness" and "live a life of purity." 

We have to stop listening to and following worldly terminology. I have learned that living righteously means doing things God's way. From a Biblical standpoint, His ways can feel strict. But as I took time to get to know God, He taught me why He does things the way He does. Those truths are beautiful.

Jesus' ways protect us from getting hurt by people. They also keep us from unintentionally hurting others. They put Him back at the center of our lives. We can't have a real relationship with God if we put our own wants and desires before Him. That makes it impossible to do right by Him. That is like saying to God, "I would rather let the sin within me destroy my life and others than let others know you get to experience the beautiful life you had planned for me."

Sin is truly evil, but you have to learn how to identify it within yourself. It can't create beautiful scenarios or experiences. Only when we obey God's ways will our lives unfold beautifully.