I Sin, Therefore I Am

Quenon and I are twin brothers from another mother.  We're both bald, excessively self confidant, scarred by our past, fairly athletic and most of all, sinful to our core.  We met the first day of college and have been tight ever since.  We got together last week in Kentucky and 20 minutes into sharing about life, marriage, fatherhood and temptations he looked right at me and said, "Man, you really suck".  Thanks.   

He's right though, I can't get it right.  Almost three decades of salvation, a Christian college education, a master's degree and 15 years of ministry and still I'm an epic Jesus fail.  My sins are too numerous and painful to post.  Last night, Jennifer was reading an article on msn.com entitled "10 Bad Habits of a Bad Man"; I was guilty of 7 of them.  The Apostle Paul's lament continues to be my life verse":

"The power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight."                                                          (Romans 7:17-22, from The Message)

It is self-evident that education, wealth, progress and being an average American white male just isn't enough.  According to history, it should be.  As the Renaissance flowered into the Age of Reason, a new worldview took hold in the west that continues to plague modernity.  Rejecting revelation and relying solely on reason, philosophes such as Bacon, Locke and Rousseau believed man could perfect himself through education, good government, rationality and continual progress.  Rousseau even said "man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains".  Simply put, man is inherently good; the ills of society make him a monster.  As politics, economics and religion are reformed, humanity will eventually achieve enlightenment.  The genesis to "find yourself" is seen in this 19th century dogma.  Nobody sums up this problem better than Theodore Dalrymple in the video below...

Certainly, the Enlightenment had a wonderful impact on western civilization, and great societal reforms aided in moving man into the modern world.  So, which worldview is right?  Is man basically good, or are we in desperate need of transcendent redemption?  I do not believe I am alone in my proneness to wander.  All of us bear Adam's stain...If nothing else, Quenon stinks just as bad as I do.