What If We’ve Been Asking the Wrong Question?

There are certain words that arrive carrying baggage.

Sin is one of them.

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For some people, the word immediately brings religion to mind.

For others..,

Guilt.

Judgment.

Punishment.

Hell.

Maybe even fear.

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For much of my life, I understood sin through many of those same associations.

There were things you were supposed to do.

Things you weren’t supposed to do.

Good choices.

Bad choices.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that was the question many of us quietly learned to ask:

"Am I being good enough?"

But eventually, I started wondering whether we were asking the wrong question.

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What if the more useful question isn’t:

Is this good or bad?

What if it is:

What will this choice create?

That question became one of the foundations of Beyond Sin.

What If Sin Is About Consequence?

Strip away everything we’ve attached to the word for a moment.

Forget the guilt.

Forget the shame.

Forget the image of someone standing over you with a list of everything you’ve done wrong.

And simply look at your life.

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You make a choice.

Something happens because of that choice.

You make another choice.

Something else happens.

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Over time, those consequences begin accumulating.

They become habits.

Relationships.

Financial situations.

Opportunities.

Regrets.

Memories.

Sometimes even entire lives.

That’s the way I began thinking about sin while writing Beyond Sin.

Action -> Consequence.

Not because consequences are always immediate.

And certainly not because every bad thing that happens to us is something we caused.

Life is much more complicated than that.

But our choices do have consequences.

And when we become aware of the patterns influencing those choices,

something interesting happens.

We gain an opportunity to choose differently.

The Patterns Behind the Choice

Most of us don’t wake up in the morning and intentionally decide:

“Today I’m going to make my life worse.”

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Yet we still make decisions we regret.

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I’ve certainly made enough of them.

So why?

That question led me back to some very old ideas.

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The Seven Deadly Sins.

Pride.

Envy.

Wrath.

Sloth.

Greed.

Gluttony.

Lust.

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Instead of looking at them simply as a list of forbidden behaviors, I began looking at them as patterns of influence.

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Suddenly they became much more interesting.

Pride can influence what we’re willing to admit.

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​Envy can influence how we see another person’s success.

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​Wrath can make a decision for us before we’ve had time to think.

Sloth can convince us that tomorrow is a better day to begin.

Greed can whisper that what we have isn’t enough.

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​Gluttony can turn enjoyment into excess.

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And lust can create an intense longing for something we believe will make our lives better.

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That last one is particularly interesting because lust has become almost synonymous with sex.

But desire can reach much further than that.

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We can lust after money.

Status.

Freedom.

Success.

Attention.

Possessions.

Someone else’s lifestyle.

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Sometimes we don’t even understand what we’re longing for until we stop long enough to examine it.

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That’s exactly what happened to me with envy.

I Thought I Wanted Someone Else’s Life

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I’ve shared the story I call Always There Poppa before.

There was a period when I’d watch people who seemed to have more freedom than I did.

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They had time.

They could go places.

They could seemingly decide what they wanted to do with their day.

Meanwhile, I had responsibilities.

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Work.

Bills.

Obligations.

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And I’d catch myself feeling envious.

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For a while, I thought that meant I wanted what they had.

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Then I asked myself a question:

If I could trade my entire life for theirs, exactly as it is, would I do it?

No.

Not even close.

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That realization stopped me.

Because if I didn’t actually want their life…

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​what was I envious of?

Eventually I realized that envy wasn’t showing me who I wanted to become.

It was pointing toward something I wanted more of.

Freedom.

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More specifically, freedom with my time.

I wanted to be able to be there for the people I love.

I wanted to become the Poppa who could say:

“Yes, I’ll be there.”

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Not occasionally.

Not only when work allowed it.

I wanted to become the Always There Poppa.

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The envy wasn’t the destination.

It was information.

And underneath the envy was desire.

One influence had revealed another.

That’s the kind of awareness Beyond Sin is really about.

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Then There Are the Ghosts

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The Seven Deadly Sins weren’t the only patterns I kept recognizing.

Fear was everywhere too.

And fear has an interesting ability.

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It can influence a decision while convincing us that we’re simply being reasonable.

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Fear of poverty.

Fear of criticism.

Fear of losing someone’s love.

Fear of ill health.

Fear of growing old.

Fear of death.

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These are the Six Ghosts of Fear explored in Beyond Sin.

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I’ve encountered every one of them in my own life.

Sometimes loudly.

Sometimes so quietly that I didn’t recognize what was happening until much later.

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That’s why I call them ghosts.

They can linger in the background.

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A decision appears to be ours…

but somewhere behind it is a whisper:

What if you fail?

What will people think?

What if you lose everything?

What if something is wrong?

Aren’t you too old to start now?

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Fear doesn’t necessarily control us.

Neither does pride.

Envy doesn’t control us.

Lust doesn’t control us.

But they can influence us.

And influence becomes especially powerful when we don’t realize it’s there.

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Awareness Creates a Pause

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This is where everything begins to change.

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Not because we eliminate fear.

Not because we somehow conquer envy forever.

Not because we become perfect human beings who never experience anger, desire, pride, or excess again.

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I certainly haven’t.

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Instead, we begin noticing.

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When you feel envy arise...
​Pause.

What is it showing you?

When you feel anger taking over...
​Pause.

What decision is anger asking you to make?

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When fear begins predicting everything that could go wrong.
​Pause.

Is fear providing useful information, or is it making the decision for you?

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When desire promises that you’ll finally be happy if you can just get one more thing.
​Pause.

What are you actually looking for?

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That tiny space between influence and action may only last a few seconds.

But sometimes a few seconds is enough.

Because once you recognize the influence…

you have another opportunity to choose.

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​Building Heaven and Hell

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This brings us to perhaps the most challenging idea in Beyond Sin.

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What if heaven and hell aren’t only places we think about in relation to what happens after we die?

What if we also build pieces of them here?

Every day.

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I’ve experienced periods of my life that felt pretty close to hell.

Some circumstances were outside my control.

Others were consequences of decisions I’d made.

And sometimes they were a mixture of both.

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I’ve also experienced moments that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Laughing with my grandchildren.

Watching someone I love succeed.

Creating something that didn’t exist yesterday.

Sitting quietly and realizing…

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​Life is pretty darn good right now.

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Maybe heaven isn’t always something enormous.

Maybe sometimes we build it one decision at a time.

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One relationship.

One conversation.

One changed habit.

One act of courage.

One afternoon spent with someone we love.

One moment when we recognize an old pattern…

and decide not to follow it this time.

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​Don’t Be Like Me…Be Better

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There’s a reason I often say:

Don’t Be Like Me…Be Better.

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I’m not writing these things because I’ve mastered life.

Quite the opposite.

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Much of what I write comes from looking backward and recognizing things I wish I’d understood sooner.

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I’ve made mistakes.

I’ve followed fear.

I’ve chased things I thought would make me happy.

I’ve ignored consequences that were sitting directly in front of me.

I’ve learned some lessons much later than I probably should have.

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But those experiences taught me something.

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If something I’ve learned can help another person recognize a pattern a little earlier than I did…

maybe they don’t have to learn every lesson the hard way.

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That’s what I mean when I say:

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​Don’t Be Like Me…Be Better.

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Don’t copy my answers.

Don’t live my life.

Learn from my mistakes.

Question my conclusions.

Pay attention to your own patterns.

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Then make a better choice when you can.

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Beyond Guilt

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Perhaps the biggest thing I hope readers take from Beyond Sin is this:

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​Awareness doesn’t require condemnation.

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Recognizing that envy influenced you doesn’t make you a bad person.

Feeling fear doesn’t make you weak.

Experiencing lust doesn’t make you immoral.

Getting angry doesn’t make you broken.

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These things make you human.

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The important question is what happens next.

What will you allow that influence to create?

Because guilt can keep us staring backward.

Awareness allows us to look backward, learn something…

and then turn around.

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The next decision is still waiting.

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​One Question for the Next 24 Hours

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I’d like to leave you with a small experiment.

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For the next 24 hours, don’t try to change your life.

Don’t try to eliminate your bad habits.

Don’t try to conquer fear.

Just notice.

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When you’re about to make a decision—especially one that feels emotional, automatic, or familiar—pause for a moment.

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Ask yourself:

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​What is influencing this choice?

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And then ask:

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​What will this choice create?

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You don’t even have to change the decision.

Not yet.

Just notice.

Because awareness comes before change.

And sometimes simply recognizing the influence is enough to create a space where another choice becomes possible.

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That is what Beyond Sin is about.

Not becoming perfect.

Not living without fear.

Not carrying around more guilt.

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It’s about recognizing the patterns quietly shaping our lives and realizing that, whenever possible…

we still get to choose what happens next.

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If you’d like to explore the complete framework, Beyond Sin: Breaking Fear, Escaping Hell, and Building Heaven Through Daily Choice examines the Seven Deadly Sins, the Six Ghosts of Fear, and the choices we make under their influence.

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But whether you ever read the book or not, I hope you’ll carry these two questions with you:

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​What is influencing this choice?

And what will this choice create?

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Until next time…

Don’t Be Like Me…Be Better.

— Magus G. Mack

The power isn’t out there. The choice is in you.