Angela Mackey

Dead Moles and Such

It was a dead mole. I had only seen moles in pictures, but I recognized the long claws and pointy nose.

“It’s a mole,” I said to my sister on the phone. “The dogs have a nasty dead mole. . .”

My sweet pups were not trying to eat the mole, they were playing with it – a disgusting rotting corpse for a toy. It was disgusting. If someone had a video of me chasing the pups around, finally getting them to drop the mole, and then scooping it up with a shovel while my children squealed in the background, I am sure it would have gone viral on YouTube. It was that funny.

As I disposed of my dogs’ rotting toy, God tugged at my heart. Just like my dogs are unaware that a rotting dead mole is not a good toy, I toy with rotting dead sin unaware I am playing with a corpse. I hide it for a time – until the stench of the sin makes it impossible to hide. Then I try to divert attention from my stinking rotten sin by pointing out other people’s sin. I act as if my sin is “better” than other people’s sin when my sin brings death the same as everyone’s sin.

Other times I tie bows on my sins and try to claim it isn’t really sin. I rationalize away scripture that points to my toys as sin. Then I get upset when folks say I am living in sin. I call them judgmental and intolerant. When in reality we all play with the rotting corpse of sin. Only by God’s grace is redemption available and only through God’s grace are we able to learn to get rid of sin.

“God’s grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age…” Titus 2:11-12

It is God’s grace that not only brings salvation, but also teaches us to live godly lives. God’s grace opens our eyes to the dead moles in our lives. His grace patiently reveals sin in our lives and teaches us how to say no to dead moles and live Godly lives. We all need God’s grace.

Father God help us to know You and Your grace so it can teach us to say no to sin and live godly lives in this age. As we live godly lives, may we draw others to want to know Your grace. In Jesus’ name, amen.