Sin Won’t Soothe Your Pain

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with a somewhat severe sensitivity to gluten. As my poor wife can testify, I fought the diagnosis hard, for months, but after many long nights, gluten’s mighty armies conquered me — and I cut it out. And I felt better.

A year or so ago, I started occasionally having similar (not as severe) issues, so my doctor referred me to a specialist: a gastroenterologist.

I saw the specialist in June, we ran some tests, and he asked me a bunch of questions. At one point, he asked me about the kinds of things I drink.

“Coffee?” “I’ve cut way back, but have a couple cups a week.”

“What about soda?” “No, I cut that out after my dad’s heart attack.”

“Okay, but what about sparkling water?” “Oh yeah, we drink a lot of sparkling water.” His eyes perked up. “Yeah, you should probably cut that out.”

He went on to explain what really should have been blatantly obvious to someone like me: Pouring carbonation of any kind on a sensitive GI tract (especially lots of carbonation) is likely to cause more irritation and discomfort.

The funny part was that my whole life I’d been taught that whenever I had an upset stomach or tummy ache, I should drink a little Sprite or Gingerale to “settle my stomach.” So for that whole year, whenever I would start to feel some kind of discomfort, I would go to the fridge and grab a sparkling water. Surely this will calm things down. No, I was almost literally pouring high octane, 93-grade gasoline on the fires of my suffering over and over and over again, expecting it to make me feel better — and then wondering, completely confused, why I felt even worse.

Well, I cut out sparkling water, and my issues stopped. Within days, my whole body felt lighter and healthier. And six months later, I’m still not having the same issues.

So why am I telling you all of this? Because the more I look back and watch myself pouring sparkling water on my pain over all those months, the more I see how we sometimes do the same with sin. In the midst of some pain or frustration or discouragement or exhaustion, we quietly reach for some besetting sin, expecting it to make us feel better — and then wonder, completely confused, why we feel even worse. 

That dangerous tendency in us reminds me of Jeremiah 2:13. God says through the prophet,

“My people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

In their need, in their pain, in their thirst, they’ve forsaken the fountain of living waters — “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” — and they’ve sucked down the sparkling water of sin instead. Sin’s worse than that, though. He describes sin as “broken cisterns” — as cups with cracks and holes. Nothing’s staying in, and so nothing’s coming out.

So what’s that cup for you? What secret sin are you tempted to turn to when you’re feeling down, or lonely, or frustrated, or stressed out and overwhelmed?

I’m not a doctor, but you need to cut that out.

I promise you, the comforts of sin — the comforts of laziness, of over-eating, of anger, of binging shows or movies, of bitterness, of alcohol abuse, of lust — the “comforts” of sin will only make the pain worse.

So, my exhortation for you this morning, church, is that you stop turning to temptation in your pain. Stop believing the lie that sin will somehow comfort you. Repent, confess it to someone, come into the light, and find real healing and relief in Christ.