Romans 7:15...19 (NIV)
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.... For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
Laid-back defined: informal relaxed and easygoing: a shaggy dog with an engaging, laid-back temperament. (New Oxford American Dictionary).
My greatest sinful desire is to be laid-back at all times and at any cost. I guess I just haven't outgrown my teenage desire to be "cool". In our car when I was a teen I ran over my dog. It occurred about two blocks from the house and a peer was present. I could see Skippy injured, bleeding out of the mouth underneath the car. Cool me, I sauntered home and told Dad what I had done and if would go take a look while I stayed at the house. I told him he had better take the rifle. It looked that bad. Some minutes later Dad returned to say the dog was already dead. To this day I regret that during my dog's last moments I was coolly sauntering home to impress myself and my peer rather than comforting Skippy during his last moments. But boy was I cool!
How many times before and since have I withdrawn my hand from someone in need or turned my head from tragedy just to remain my cool, laid-back self rather than getting mad as hell about some injustice or becoming hotly exercised about some callus criminality in progress. Being laid-back as a predominant lifestyle has a pervasive dampening and dulling effect on empathy and compassion. So the devil temps me most not with sensational sin, but with bland, profound complacency. Having watched 1776, I would say I need to take a daily, double dose of John Adams.
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