Let The Sunshine In

A little while ago Alex Kirk was blogging about trees.

He had a pretty interesting post about the difference between cutting down a tree and getting rid of its roots, the analogy being about sin – should we change our hearts or our behavior? This stuck with me for a bit so I was thinking through all sorts of questions and ideas about it. Which is more important? Which is more effective? What is the cause and effect relationship, if any? Alex wrote, “…clearly the Lord talks about the essential nature of the internal world and the need for a renovation of the heart…But on the other hand, sometimes I just need to stop sinning.” Obviously, changing our hearts is more important (and permanent), but, as Alex pointed out in his arboreal quandary, what if we can figure out what the problem in our hearts is?

All of this flowed into a conversation I recently had with a friend about habitual sin – those things we know we shouldn’t do, but keep on doing anyway. There is a correlation between sinful behavior and a sinful heart, but which do you focus on when you’re trying to grow and make a strong change in your life? Wouldn’t behavior modification be a quality remedy then? This question can only be answered efficiently on a case by case basis, but I think the solution can be found by looking at motivation for the behavior change.

If I stop sinning just for the sake of it or because my Biblia told me to, then I’m not getting closer to God, not really. My head is in it, but my heart isn’t. But at the same time, if I’m chipping away at my heart without knowing which chunk I need to chip, I could do some serious damage. There must be some sort of balance in the approach, perhaps even beyond our control, if we hope to maintain a successful fight against sin.

In some roundabout way or another, this leads me to the next movie in my little film analysis series: Schindler’s List. In case you’ve been living under a rock since 1993, it’s the true story of a Nazi factory owner named Oskar Schindler who employed Jews out of the ghettos and labor camps and was eventually able to save 1,100 of them from likely death at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz or elsewhere. I won’t waste time explaining how brilliant the film is, as many before me have already done that.

I want to talk about it because of the trees.

Initially, Schindler employed Jews because they cost him less money than Poles, and let’s not forget that the only reason he even wanted a factory was for the government contracts. Basically, he was a war profiteer exploiting Jewish labor. But very slowly he stopped seeing laborers and started seeing people – perhaps it was the one armed press operator who was so very grateful for his job. Or maybe the young boy who promised to learn everything he could about enamelware production. Eventually he grew a little protective. They were his Jews. He started working the system so that he could keep the ones he had, and get more. When the war was nearing an end, all of his laborers were going to be sent to Auschwitz, and he was able to open his own camp in Czechoslovakia, but the only way he could get his Jews was to pay for them. He bought them. He bought their lives because he cared for them.

I feel I haven’t been terribly clear in making my point about changing our hearts and changing our actions. Schindler went through a process. He started out by changing his behavior for the wrong reason. He saw the good in this new action, and as a result his heart changed a little. So he continued doing a good thing, but now for the right reason. And his heart became more invested. As his actions became more radically good, his heart was unable to turn away from this thing he was doing. He grew into a state where he was compelled to do the right thing because his conscience and heart would not allow him to do anything else. It was a state of righteousness.

I am not claiming that stopping the behavior is the solution to every sin. There is plenty of argument that after we change our hearts the behavior will change naturally. I agree with that, too, in certain situations. I am only saying that we can see more clearly without sin, and an environment in which we keep a steady fight against habitual sin makes it easier for us to truly change our hearts in the long run.

Roger Ebert wrote, “The power of Spielberg's film is not that it explains evil, but that it insists that men can be good in the face of it, and that good can prevail.” We have to stand in evil’s face and reject it. Whether our hearts are in it before or after ultimately doesn’t matter. As long as they get there eventually, we’ll keep standing. And in the meantime, God will hold us up.

Let me clarify that I do not intend to use Schindler to show him standing up against the Nazis or even as a savior to the Jews. I only wanted to bring this man and this story up as an example of a man faced with two choices: one potentially righteous, one potentially wicked. Which one did he pick? Which one do we?

So do we cut down the trunk of our sinful actions or pull up the roots in our sinful hearts? How much does it matter as long as nothing is blocking the sunlight?

If anyone has not seen this movie, please go out and rent it, or even better, read the book. I’d love to hear thoughts and questions from anyone reading this. As usual, I’m really asking more questions that giving answers. And when a topic is as case-specific as I believe this one is, there are bound to be plenty of valid approaches from which we can learn.