Iniquity - A Major Player in our Dis-Ease

Today's post comes form a "throw away" line in the most current edition of the Christian Century. The line was how iniquity waas really the same thing as inequality. That made a light bulb go off in my mind. I have often been befuddled by the term iniquity. We often pray corporately for God to forgive our sins and our iniquities. I thought they were the same thing, but the writer in me knew that if this were true, then I was praying a redundancy. I never was moved until now to seek more information.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary gives synonyms for iniquity as evil, injustice, wickedness, immorality, sin; to name just a few. So, sin is a synonym for iniquity, but it appears that the most common understanding is that of injustice - our sin against each other. There is much injustice in the world, both our local world, and around the globe. In America, our insatiable need for things and wealth accumulation, drive much of the social injustice in the developing world. Irrespective of belief models and commentaries by uninformed folks such as Glen Beck, injustice is real, is a major player for all the Abrahamic faiths, and is a major player in our individual and communal dis-ease.

What do I mean? We are all created to be in relationship one to another, and to something larger than ourselves. When our connection is strong, we are part of something that enables our health, wellness and wholeness (HW2). When we rely on ourselves or on human-centric beliefs and health models, we get off into the "latest and greatest" that leave us wanting more. Never satisfying, always demanding more sacrifice, leaving us unchanged (untransformed), leaving us a shadow of ourselves.

When we open ourselves up to the possibility of something greater than ourselves, then we give up the need to run the universe. Once that happens, we can look around and see the world for the shambles that we've made it, and feel true remorse for our complicity in the injustices of not only our time, but for times past. We can then ask and receive forgiveness, and ask what it is that we can do about the things that we see. Healing comes in this way - from outside ourselves when we are truly connected.

So, how can we pursue HW2? We first need to own our iniquity along with our sin. At that point then, we can forgive each other and work to heal the dis-ease of the world. This is the path that Possibilities Journey, Inc., (www.possjrny.org) is on. Come and join us.

Peace,
Dan