Sin is an interesting subject that can have many different perspectives and understandings. I found a new view of sin at my church’s Ash Wednesday service. As Methodists, we participate in lent. It is a sacrifice of something we enjoy eating doing, or having to get a hint of what it was like for God to sacrifice His only son. During the service, we were asked to write down our biggest sin on the small piece of paper we were given before the service. I simply could not think of only one word to describe my uncountable sins.

I began drawing a small dot on my paper. Before I knew it, the dot kept getting bigger and bigger. I continued drawing, what was now a circle, darker and even larger than it was before. This was my sin. One big, dark circle. I stared at it as I reflected on all of my senseless sin. All of the lies and betrayals set comfortably within the sloppy borders of the dark bottomless pit. No matter how hard I tried, I could not create a clean border. This is why the circle kept getting bigger. I kept trying to perfect the outside but failed time and time again. How could it be perfected? It was nothing but sin.

I continued to doodle, coloring in what I could and making designs in the middle. No matter how many times I tried to create or fix something within the sin, it would not appear. This sin was now in the past. It could not be fixed or created into anything acceptable. If I were to erase this sin, there would always be a smudge reminding me of what could not be forgotten.

I redrew this simple dot later after the service to fully analyze its different meanings. With every pass of a circle, none were perfect; and when they combined, sin was created. This relates to life. It is the repetition of what we know is wrong and ignoring it that creates sin. It would be impossible to draw a perfect circle without assistance, and the same is true with life. It is impossible to have a perfect life, but with His help we can discover how to live and love to the fullest.