What a Dirty Guest Taught Me About the Damaging Effects of Sin
- Maggie Wallem Rowe
- Apr 8
- 5 min read
[If you received last week’s letter four times in rapid succession, it was NOT an April Fool’s joke! I pay my email server to send these letters out each month, and they certainly blew it last week. I hope to switch to a better system soon. Thanks for your patience!]
[Got your hands full? Happy to read today’s message to you instead!]
SHE WAS THE WORST GUEST EVER.
Mike and I usually love welcoming visitors to Peace Ridge, our home in the mountains of western North Carolina. Over nearly seven years in residence, we’ve hosted several hundred individuals, couples or families overnight. Many are family members or friends we’ve known for years. Others come as strangers but leave as friends.
But the guest who showed up last September was not only uninvited but destructive. It was bad enough that she toppled trees and tore down a retaining wall. Worse still, she tracked mud through our property before depositing tons of silt in our pond. Yet we were among the fortunate ones—Helene destroyed countless homes and lives in our region before heading north.
Given the scope of relief efforts, it was months before we were able to hire skilled excavators to remove trees and dredge our pond. We watched for several weeks while workers constructed a temporary road across our lower lawn and hauled out over 150 dump-truck loads of silt.
Silt, by definition, is composed of particles of rock, clay and dirt so fine they’re almost undetectable until they’re carried by running water and deposited as sediment. Our pond at Peace Ridge had been vibrant with life—fish and frogs, waterfowl and water striders—until Helene choked it with her fury.
Can there be such a thing as “spiritual silt”—insidious debris that has a way of infiltrating the human soul?
At a conference in the Northeast last May, I had the privilege of sitting under the teaching of Jan and Philippe de Chambrier, two exceptionally gifted speakers who have an international ministry teaching on Christian healing prayer.
In one particularly incisive session, Jan used the analogy of SILT to describe that which can block the flow of living water to our souls: Sin, Iniquity, Lies, and Trauma. I took careful notes.
What follows is only a thumbnail sketch of her in-depth teaching. (To access Jan’s complete notes, go to https://www.glimpsesofhope.org/healing_prayer_training.)
SIN – Those moral transgressions, including lack of forgiveness, that separate us from God. Romans 3:23 tells it true—we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s standards. Anyone who insists they are never wrong is a narcissist at best and a liar at worst, or at least a blind fool.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” I John 1:8
INIQUITY—Generational sin, the “sins of our fathers.” The Hebrew term is avon, meaning to bend, twist, or distort, implying a twisting of God’s law which results in disobedience. We see vivid examples of generational sin in the family history of King David. (Also see Exodus 20:5-6!)
LIES—Wrong belief systems. Both Jesus and Paul repeatedly warn against false teachers, anyone adding to or subtracting from God’s word. Cults are notorious for the ways their leaders elevate secondary sources above Scripture and insist on arbitrary, manmade standards of behavior. (Do you remember the horrors of Jim Jones and Jonestown, the Manson Family, Heaven’s Gate or the Branch Davidians, to name a few?) Satan himself is called the Father of Lies.
“Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” John 8: 31-32
TRAUMA— Jan, no stranger to “Big T” trauma herself, teaches that fear due to unresolved trauma can become an entry point to the enemy’s interference in our lives. But listen carefully: trauma is not something we have initiated, welcomed, cultivated, or sought. It’s something that happens to us whether by accidental means or the cruel volitional choices of others who do us harm.
The term “trauma” covers a myriad of tragic situations including accidents, illnesses, the death of a loved one, adultery, divorce, physical abuse, sexual abuse, violence, bullying, or any other violation of our personhood—whatever rocks our world as we know it.
Sometimes when trauma occurs, we believe that we brought it on ourselves and deserve to be punished for it. God doesn’t operate that way. Satan does.
In the seminars that Jan and Philippe lead around the world, they take individuals and groups through intensive sessions of healing prayer, while not discounting the need for those victimized by trauma to also seek help from trained counselors or therapists.
Even those subtle sins that aren’t apparent to others can block the flow of living water. Envy becomes corrosive. Our need to be right rends holes in relationships. A critical spirit towards those who look, act, or think differently feeds pride and starves humility.
What’s this have to do with holiness? Absolutely everything.
“Strong habits of holiness are the safety net that keeps us building and moving forward. We tend the gap by our commitment to prayer and our daily soaking in scripture. Truth about God offsets the screaming banshees in our heads (and in the culture) that want to make our disappointment, our discouragement, and our struggles the biggest thing in the room.” Michele Moran
You’ve had some uninvited guests track mud through your life. Legal issues. Abuse. Loss of loved ones. Financial difficulties. Medical crises. Family estrangement and broken relationships.
But here’s the good news, the best news of all.
The Lord of Hosts – the great Host himself – has the power to remove that uninvited guest from your life or give you the peace to deal with its dirt.
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” Romans 5:1-2 NLT
Trust me on this, friends. In the end, it will all be set right. And if it’s not set right now, then this is not the end.
Holding onto hope with you,
Maggie
[Did you miss the first four letters in this six-part Lenten series? They’re linked below if they might be useful to someone you know.}