It’s a carnival game…players are given a large wooden and rubber mallet designed to bump of mechanical moles as they poke their heads out of a series of holes. Wack the mole, win a prize.
It’s also a popular form of pastoral counseling and a favorite of those who feel that their Christian responsibility is discharged by identifying and wacking the sins of others. Wack a sin and win God’s favor.
The problem with the latter game is that it makes for lousy pastoral care. When someone else struggles, the first question to ask is this: What does the situation say about the needs of your soul?
There may be an appropriate place for repentance and amendment of life to come. But the first challenge is to name the emptiness or struggle that leads to sin in the first place. The goal is healing and healing can only take place after the deep nature of the wound is discovered.
Spiritual wack-a-mole may make the guy with the mallet feel better, but it does very little for the friend in need.
What we think are big sins may not be in God’s sight and what we think are little sins may be the large sins. God looks on our heart. I don’t think we can ever know it entirely. It takes the Holy Spirit to reveal just where we are at in our progress on a certain issue. If we are a thief then to steal is absolutely wrong and may lead to arrest and jail. But what happened to the person who wanted to steal in the first place? Did they feel something had been taken away from them for no good reason and they used it as revenge? Well, the suppositions could go on and on, couldn’t they? Yet stealing can become an addiction like others that are more well known. The hurting person may abuse whatever their drug of choice is and trying to heal those wounds that prompt their behavior may take a lifetime while the addiciton grows and causes much damage to the individual as well as to the others who care about them. While we may try to stop the top side of the situation and be successful it takes a whole heap of loving from others and Jesus the great Healer to touch our inward heart. No easy answer to this topic. A simple solution is to regard the Scripture as the Word of God and ask for divine strength to obey and apply them to our lives may help most of all while we wait on the deeper side of us to be healed.