The Sins of Omission

Most people are sinners not because of what they have done, but because of what they have not done. The wretchedness of our lives could in some sense be attributed to our inaction during those critical moments of our lives when we needed to do something but instead chose to do nothing. It’s quite clear that it is not always something we do that gets us into trouble, but something we do not do, that we should’ve done. It’s been said that in our old age, we will regret not what we did, but what we did not do. To do nothing is a much greater risk, and I have had someone put it, though a little bit paradoxically, that it takes lots of courage to be a coward. It certainly does. It takes a lot of courage to do nothing, it’s the harder option. What were we supposed to do. Have we restrained our hands from helping, and have we shut our mouths from speaking.

By keenly avoiding to face some of the pertinent issues of our lives, we have allowed things to get messier, terrible and out of control. Our contribution could have kept things from escalating but we opted for silence. To date, we haven’t apologized when we should have ages ago. We haven’t shown up for the people we claimed we loved. We have failed to do our best as we promised. We haven’t shown kindness and compassion to those who needed it.

As it is, we always miss 100% of the shots we do not take. He who knows what he ought to do, but does not, to him it is sin, so the Scriptures say, he can be sure that his sin will find him out.

In Numbers 32, Reuben and Gad choose not to go to battle, opting instead to live by their flocks and take care of their children. Moses asks, “shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?” He warns them, “If you do not go forth to the battles of the Lord, and contend for the Lord God, and for his people, ye do sin against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

In his book Stillness is the Key, Ryan Holiday recounts the words of Nassim Taleb, that if you see fraud, but do not say fraud you are a fraud. There’s the choice about standing back, about not getting our hands dirty, about not getting ourselves involved in other people’s business, but that’s the harder and costlier choice. When we do the silent treatment in a relationship, whether it is with a partner, a friend, a roommate, a parent, a neighbor, when we keep silent when we should speak we act unjustly, and our sin will find us out. When we can help but we do not help, we are the world’s greatest cowards; we are frauds. Ryan goes on to says, the health of our spiritual ideals depend on what we do with our bodies in the moments of truth. The Priest and the Levite who passed by the injured man could have done something, they didn’t; they looked away, they walked away. When someone needed you, did you look away? He who is blessed with the world’s goods, and yet shuts himself up from helping one who is in need, does he not sin? Jesus says: do not refuse him who asks for your help. If you act, will it change anything? If yes, then act. When men take up arms to go to war, do not sit back and rest. Rise with them, go and fight with them. This could bring the just concluded protests in the medical field to mind, but it is more than just showing up with the placard. It is not about yelling, it is saying something when it truly matters.

The choice about living like a coward or dying a hero is ours to make, when we do the former, we can be sure our sin will find us out. Things may unspool themselves alright, the storm may calm without us not having acted, but still, we can be sure that our sin will find us out. The honey in the hive might be abundant, but it won’t be what it would have been had all the bees brought in their share of the nectar. What should you be adding to your team? Are you holding back when their goodwill depends on you? Is it your habit not to meet for fellowship? Do you make your contribution of prayers to the common stalk? What have you not done? Have you apologized? Have you clarified your intentions? Notice a need in the world, then do something about it. If you do not know how to help, stand up and ask, “excuse me, how can I help?”

Don’t be a coward.