The “O” is something that often leads to “Oh!”  And then “owe” – but I’d rather we not go all the way there..
 
This week I have been involved in a variety of conversations that included time spent with sins of Commission and sins of Omission.  While I do not recall being the initiator of these conservations, I certainly was a willing participant.  My observation is that we generally focus upon sins of Commission while frequently forgetting the equally important ones of Omission.
 
[Definition added here because of my need for clarity over your probable need to understand:  Sins of Commission are the things we do that are not godly.  Sins of Omission are the godly things we fail to do.  And, when you hear the word “things”, think of thoughts, words, and deeds.]
 
Often times our sins of Commission are simply (I use this term loosely) bad habits, and the truth is that simply getting rid of a bad habit generally does not work (or less simply put, is insufficient).  Our tendency when getting rid of a bad habit is to either fall into another one or, quite often, return to the old one after just a temporary pause.  Jesus provides us with an illustration in a short story he tells.  “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest but finds none.  Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.  Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first.” (Matthew 12.43-45)
 
You might remember this old Frank Sinatra song?  “Love and marriage, love and marriage, they go together like a horse and carriage.  This I tell you, brother, you can’t have one without the other.”  In this same way I say to you my brothers and sisters in Christ, one cannot work on sins of Commission without simultaneously focusing upon the reciprocal sins of Omission.  St. Paul puts it this way: “Sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.  Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”(Ephesians 5.3-4)
 
This is where the “O” often leads to the “Oh!”  “Oh,” we say, “I was all set to consider trying to stop saying and thinking inappropriate things, but now you’re telling me that that is not enough.  I also need to start saying and thinking helpful things.  Oh my!”
 
This becomes a heavy load when the “Oh” leads all the way to “owe” (that guilt we feel for our great to God), however my preference is that the “Oh” lead us to a “wow!”  “Wow, I can make a significant, positive difference not only in my own life, but also in the lives of my neighbors by a renewed focus upon thinking, saying and doing helpful (the right) things.”
 
This, after all, is how God treats us.  “God is love.” (1 John 4.8).  And “love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; (he) is not arrogant or rude.  (He) does not insist on (his) own way; (he) is not irritable or resentful; (he) does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13.4-8a)
 
Thus my prayer for you today is that the Holy Spirit would make Paul’s reality yours.  “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became more mature, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; the I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13.11-12) Or simply that Jesus would lead us all away from the “O” through the “Oh” and all the way to the “WOW!”

Co + O … Oh!