Overcoming the Sinful Life

It is a rare to see a post with such a high ratio of excellent comments as this recent one at Times and Seasons. Kaimi laments the many sins he commits each day and wonders how it would be possible to have a sin free day. Particularly insightful was this comment from Jim F.:

...the problem is with the way Kaimi is thinking of sin, as this or that act that is sinful rather than as spiritual separation from God. I live in sin because I live separated from him. To the degree that I have the Holy Ghost, a member of the Godhead, I am not separated and, so, not in sin. But to have the Holy Ghost is to live a life that you’ve described as “constant repentance,” a life in which I continually strive to have my heart where it ought to be. Sin is the state I live in more than the acts I commit. Ultimately to repent is to live in a state of holiness, not merely to cease doing some particular act.

Another commenter posted the most wonderful poem that is probably going to find its way onto my wall somewhere.

This life, therefore, is not righteousness
But growth in righteousness
Not health but healing
Not being but becoming,
Not rest but exercise,
We are not yet what we shall be
But we are growing toward it.
The process is not yet finished
But it is going on.
This is not the end,
but it is the road.
All does not yet gleam in glory
But all is being purified.

--Martin Luther