Sin Sucks

Yes, I realize I am slow to arrive at the party of this reality; however, this truth has really been haunting me lately. The impact of sin is so vast and destructive to many people, not just the sinner. Full consideriation of this truth can be overwhleming, because we are all sinners. So my sin affects everyone around and in relationship with me, which affects everyone around and in relationship with them, and...well, you get the idea. So lately it is this vast impact of sin that has gotten me really frustrated. I see it in myself, and I feel it from those whom I know. It hurts me when I know people are ignoring their children's cries for help. My heart aches for the wife whose husband works incessantly, neglecting her and their kids' daily needs of love and attention. And, I figure, if these things cause me to hurt and cry out to Jesus, what must it be like for those who are actually enduring it, firsthand? Ugh. Thus the title of this post.
Paul gets it right in Romans 7:14-21:

14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

So, it begins with me. I have to realize the responsibility I bear when I sin and send out those ripples of hurt to others.

And this is only considering the effects of sin on a horizontal plane. Looking up, I must face that most importantly, sin grieves the Father, who loves so much.