Take your sin seriously, because God does

In the moment that we have the self-awareness to understand how deeply flawed we are, those are the opportunities to receive grace in abundance.

May 22, 2024

Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor. (James 4:9-10)

Did you know that using pictures you found on Google Images in a blog post can get you slapped with a lawsuit? I didn’t. I mean, I’d heard it happened to some people, but I never thought it would happen to me.

It was years and years ago, and I had a fleeting thought that I ought to check the images on my website to make sure that none of them were under copyright protection. But I thought, nah. Surely they don’t belong to anyone, and even if they do, I’ll just explain that I wasn’t making money off them. If there were consequences, I’d deal with them as they came.

Take it from someone who has learned a lesson the hard way: Don’t ever think you can survive consequences unscathed.

I got one of those really scary letters in the mail, claiming that I’d stolen someone’s intellectual property. And that I needed to pay an exorbitant amount of money to make it up to them (seriously, like $500,000 or something). I was a brand new author. I had no idea what I was doing. And suddenly I was facing a lawsuit.

Of course, I did the wise business thing. I got a lawyer who specialized in copyright law and got some advice. I asked him if I could apologize, and he said I could try. So I did.

It didn’t make any difference. And at first, I was really upset about it. I hadn’t meant anything by it. I hadn’t purposefully stolen anyone’s work. I felt really defensive about it, because the tiny little image I used wasn’t worth $500,000.

I remember it so clearly. I was laying in bed, asking God for help, and He so gently pointed out to me that I had done wrong.

I had sinned.

The instant I realized it and understood it, I told God how sorry I was. I poured my heart out to Him in sorrow and horror at the choice I’d made. It was careless and thoughtless. I didn’t meant to do harm, but I had.

Have you ever had a moment like that? When God calls you on your sin? When He allows you a glimpse of His righteousness in comparison to your own?

Suddenly, all that defensiveness melted into mortification. I put myself in the shoes of that artist. If I had been in that artist’s position and someone used my work without my permission (intentionally or not), I’d be so angry. I’d demand justice.

In that instant, I stopped pushing back. I stopped feeling like the one who was injured because of that outrageous sum being demanded by the artist’s protection organization.

Now, I did supply my lawyer with the documents and the evidence of what I’d done with the image in question, and he was able to negotiate settlement that was FAR less than what they were threatening me with. And I was grateful. But by that point, I was so horrified by what I’d done that if that was the requirement, I would have accepted it.

Because I was wrong.

God, in His mercy, allowed me to face a much smaller financial consequence than I could have, but I have no illusions about it. That was Him, giving me mercy because I repented.

Don’t be ashamed of those moments when God calls you on your sin. Embrace them. Cling to them. Because in the moment that we have the self-awareness to understand how deeply flawed we are, those are the opportunities to receive grace in abundance.

That doesn’t mean the person you hurt will forgive you. They may never forgive you. But that’s not your responsibility. Your job is to apologize to them for the harm you caused and turn away from it and never do it again.

But even if the person you hurt doesn’t forgive you, God will. Every time.

But you have to take it seriously. You have to mean it. It can’t be a half-hearted shrug. If you only turn away with half your heart, it won’t be long before you turn back to it again.