“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.” // Mark 9:43

As a child, I remember being afraid of God. I didn’t envision Him as the thoughtful, approachable, forgiving, loving, and merciful Father I have a relationship with today. The God I heard about from the pulpit sounded strict, authoritative, and more of a disciplinarian than a welcoming lap I could sit on to be embraced. Today’s Gospel can set off an alarm of fear within us. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43). What a vibe kill!

If we read this through the worldly view of comfort and convenience, we may resist the message that we really need to hear: our complacency towards sin and its effects have no room in the Kingdom.

In my own daily life, I am aware of the lack of discipline I have towards the habits that will keep me from having to cut off my hand, primarily my thumb.

How many times my thumb has caused me to sin! I reach for my phone, and instantly my thumb leads me to comparison. “Wow, that family dresses beautifully for mass and the mom looks so well rested. She doesn’t have any bags under her eyes.” My thumb continues scrolling and leads me to doubt, “Maybe we need to get out of the city and live off the land.” My thumb, an interconnected part of my hand, leads me to sin because I have allowed it to do so.

As Lent begins next week, consider some things that you could cut off? What good habits can replace your temptation to sin or to feel jealousy towards a stranger on the internet?

I don’t want a Peloton bike or someone else’s farm life, but because it’s in front of me, I feel like I do. This Lent I am going to work on my thumb leading me to commit the seven deadly sins.

Sister, does your thumb cause you to fall into temptation? Let’s trade scrolling for obedience.

[bctt tweet="Let’s trade scrolling for obedience. // Mytae Carrasco Wallace" username="blessedisshe__"]

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