So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:17 

I do not like the chocolate chip cookies my wife bought…

Take a look at the picture and see if you can figure out why…

You guessed it…I do not like them because they are small…

Very small.

“They only have thirty calories each,” my wife says and smiles.

“Are you saying I’ve gained weight?”

She keeps smiling and says nothing…

Well, I have added a pound or two…

Maybe thirty-calorie cookies are a good idea…

At 30 calories each, I can eat five cookies and still only have 150 calories.

Chocolate chip cookies without guilt!

Where are those cookies?

Oh. The bag is empty.

I ate all the cookies…

30 calories at a time.

I rationalized my actions…

30 calories at a time.

With the bag empty, I need another way to get my chocolate cookie fix…

There is the chocolate chip cookie from the coffee shop…

The one I’ve been saving.

It’s just one cookie…

How bad can one cookie be?

Here’s a picture of the cookie…

Or at least a part of it…

(I tried to take a picture of the whole cookie… but it looked so good just sitting there on the plate…)

How many calories in this cookie?

The wrapper says only 200 calories…

Oh.  Make that “200 calories per serving.”

How many servings?

4 servings.

800 calories?  In one cookie?

Still, it’s only one cookie!

I have so many ways to rationalize my cookie indulgence…

“Only 30 calories per cookie…”

“Only one cookie…”

And besides, my wife bought the 30 calorie cookies in the first place…

It’s her fault.

I can rationalize my cookie eating and blame it on someone else all at the same time.

Rationalization and blame.

The perfect combination…

One that’s been around for quite a while…

What did Adam say to God?

…“The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Genesis 3:12

Didn’t Eve do exactly the same?

 The woman said, “The serpent deceived me…”  Genesis 3:13

It is so easy to blame someone else and rationalize away my sin with empty words.

It’s so easy to say, “It’s such a little sin…”

It’s so easy to say, “It’s just one sin.”

It’s so easy to believe, “My sin is no big deal!”

Empty words.

But they are not the last words…

The last words belong to God.

God, who set us free from sin…

God who set us free…

Free to love…

 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Galatians 5:13

The original version of this post appeared in February 2015