Acquiring Immunity

¹Every flu that's ever been caught is some variation of the original Influenza that killed hundreds of millions of people over a century ago. The whole reason that they come out with new flu shots every year is because the virus mutates and adapts to try and sneak past our bodies’ immune systems. They often come up with multiple different shots in any given season because there's often several different mutations happening all at once and they're not always sure which strain is going to spread. But thanks to a lifetime of fighting off different versions of this disease and overall much improved medicines and healthcare, catching the flu isn't nearly as fatal as it used to be. We may not love having to deal with all of the pain and unpleasantness that being sick with the flu brings with it, but we usually don't assume that it's the end of the world if we come down with the flu. We certainly don't consider it some kind of moral failing or unfixable character flaw if we get sick like this. And yet, when it comes to temptations and sins, we don't treat them the way we do a flu. Sins make our spirits sick. They bring all kinds of pain and unpleasantness. And the thing is, most of the different temptations we face aren't that much different than those that have been plaguing mankind since Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Sure, every year they may mutate and adapt to try to get past our spiritual immune system, but even if we take precautions and turn to the Lord and ask Him to give us immunity for the sins that do so easily beset us, sometimes they still slip through. But just because we get temporarily sick from having committed a sin of some kind, this does not mean that we need to pass judgement on ourselves or feel that we've got some unfixable character flaw. We have survived every other spiritual flu that has infected us, and, with the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ, we’ll survive this one too. Even better, after we have fully repented and been forgiven and healed, our immune system gets that much stronger. There may in the future be other variants of these sins and temptations that manage to slip past our defenses, but at least we will have acquired an immunity to this particular strain. When we are sick enough to go to a doctor, does the doctor berate us for not being perfectly healthy, or does the doctor focus on helping us get better? Why should Christ be any different? If sin has made us spiritually sick, Christ is not going to pull up the blooper reel of our life and describe with pinpoint precision all of the ways we went wrong and laugh at how stupid and weak we are. He's going to help us get better. Nobody likes being sick, physically or spiritually. But refusing medical care because we are convinced that we are worthless and despicable is not the answer. I hope when we are spiritually sick, we waste less time beating ourselves up for not having the perfect immune system and spend more time gratefully accepting healing from our Savior, and, when we have fully recovered, rejoicing that we have acquired immunity to yet one more variation of temptation and sin.