day no. 17,378: unendurable vices (and their remedies)

In Douglas Wilson's recent post titled, Christians, Gerrymandering, and the Legitimate Uses of Political Power, he referenced the following quotation:

"These present times, in which we can endure neither our vices nor their remedies." — Livy, Ab Urbe Condita Praefatio 9

One of the worst consequences of being caught in sin for a long time is that you get used to it and prefer the pains of staying in the chains to the pains of learning to walk again. Good muscles atrophy from lack of use and any attempt to use them again is painful. Like the lame man by the pool of Bethseda, you get used to where you are and are not particularly motivated to move. The difficulties of moving only then reinforce a desire to stay put.

Sin is not a long-term strategy and anything that can't go on forever, won't. And so we have reached the point where we can no longer sleep in the bed we have made. It is too uncomfortable. But we are also too weak and to tired to carry our old mattress out. We can no longer get rest from the things we used to and we do not have the energy or ability to do the work real rest requires.

We cannot continue to drink poison without dying, but we cannot stand the taste of the medicine. And so, we waste away... unless God, by His grace, should intervene.