Sin acts as a destructive loop - a loop that prevents us from seeing clearly, and one that brings us further from God the more we allow ourselves to sin. It prevents us from seeing our errors and the ultimate resolution in a productive way, causing despair and disappointment in ourselves and in God.
In a way, there are two steps to the sin cycle. We are human - many of us tend to find fault in ourselves, (the first half of the cycle), make a small change, and don’t stick with the change well enough to see the results from it. By failing to see how much that resolution may help us, we put our progress at risk. This creates a sadness when we don’t achieve what we intend, and ultimately pulls us from God.
There is a destructive loop that pulls us away from our faith in God and the Catholic Church. Especially in today’s day and age, there is such an emphasis on finding the ways we have failed - not only against ourselve or to God, but in every measurable aspect of our lives. The influence of social media, endless “news”, and constant striving for the next best thing pulls us all into our own world of comparison. Comparison can be a good thing if measuring yourself to an objectively good thing, but it is most commonly a destructive force in our lives. Comparing to others, comparing to fellow Catholics, and comparing to the hypothetical image of you you should be, as a Catholic, as a sinner, and as a human being, prevents us from accepting where we are in the journey at the present moment. Comparing yourself to the idea of something rather than the objective good itself is a bad game to play.
The destructive loop present in most of our lives results from moving too fast and expecting everything to be able to keep up in our lives. High standards can sometimes be set too high when they create an unattainable, unrealistic, and unforgiving expectation of ourselves. Whether imposed by yourself or others, we all set our expectations. It becomes dangerous when we constantly berate or criticize ourselves without seeing the bigger picture - God’s mercy. Without God’s mercy, why do we try and become better Christians? The endgame is trusting in God so much that as long as you do everything for His glory, you will eventually become a saint. That’s a tall order, but there is something to learn there.
When we constantly criticize ourselves, we lose the beauty of God’s forgiveness through his Son, Jesus. The beauty is that He knows we will make mistakes - and it is on us to focus on moving forward - i.e. trusting Him, rather than focusing on our failures. To pick yourself up when you fail, commit to change, and make the small steps forward to trust God. Too many of us enter into the loop of comparison, expectation, and criticism and forget that none of it matters if we keep coming back to Jesus. Rather than always focus on what you did wrong, focus on what you do right (what can God be proud of?) and focus on doing more of that. It’s somewhat of a paradox, but our faith can be like that. Sometimes the only thing to do is have trust and patience in God. Sometimes the best thing to do is to keep doing the small things right and trust that the changes will happen.
Breaking free from the loop requires patience, it requires trust, and it requires vision to realize that our failures are not the end of us but rather a new beginning. Every time we fail is a new opportunity to keep trying, keep moving forward, and keep learning with God by our side.
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