Jeremy L. Berg

I’m hoping to resume my nature reflections this spring and summer, getting back to my Jesus Walks manuscript I began last summer before inspiration vanished. Here’s a new one.

After a carefree morning stroll, or perhaps a reckless frolic through the tall spring grass, my legs were crawling with a half dozen pesky black-legged wood ticks. Under my socks. Between my toes. One was boldly climbing my upper thigh toward my nether regions. I’m still feeling the crawling sensation on my skin as I type this.

If you spot ticks right away and swiftly remove them, they are mostly harmless—just an annoying part of the human experience. On the other hand, if ticks go unnoticed and allowed time to attach themselves and feed off your blood, they grow larger and can cause real problems.

The wood tick’s evil blood-sucking cousin, the deer tick, can carry the borrelia bacteria that causes Lyme disease. So, we are careful to check for ticks, quickly remove them, and take seriously the bullseye shaped rash their bite leaves on our skin. 

Every loving parent checks their children for ticks after a day in the deep woods. Likewise, a loving God encourages His children to check themselves regularly for sin and provides a way to deal with its bite before it grows and festers and brings destructive consequences.  

Psalm 32 describes the tick bite of sin and the misery it can cause us when we let it feed and fester in our lives for too long. Here it is:

“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Psalm 32:3-5

Any sufferer of Lyme disease can relate to “bones wasting away”, “groaning all day long” and “strength sapped in the summer heat.” And any human being with a conscience can relate to being dogged by guilt, crippled by shame, and wallowing in self-pity over the mess our sin has caused ourselves and others in our lives.

Interestingly, a literal definition of sin (Gk. hamartia) living in a way that “misses the bullseye,” and the bite of a deer tick leaves a bullseye mark on our skin. 

Ticks tend to move toward certain places on the body to hide, such as our hairline or warm and moist places like the groin, armpits or between our toes. Likewise, our sin likes to stay hidden in the dark and unseen places of our lives. We need trusted people in our lives — friends, spouses, pastors, mentors — who can gently help draw our attention to sin’s creeping presence in our lives.

When our son was about 3-years old, we spotted the bullseye mark on his skin and took him to the doctor for immediate treatment. If we had “missed the mark”, he could have suffered dearly for our inattention to the tick’s bite. Likewise, when we “miss the mark” in our spiritual lives and moral decision-making, sinful choices and habits can bring great suffering into our lives and our relationships with others.

Thankfully, we have a gracious God who helps us remove the life-sucking sting of sin, providing the healing balm of grace to cover the bite. The process is simple on our end, but infinitely costly on God’s. Jesus allowed all of humanity’s cumulative tick-bites of sin—past, present and future—to latch on to his body on the cross, feast on his blood, infect him with a disease far worse than Lyme’s. In exchange, we are freed, forgiven and invited to feed on the life-giving body and blood of Christ each week in the eucharist.

If the thought of little insects going unchecked as they slowly feed off our blood (literally) makes our skin crawl, how much more should the thought of unchecked sin in our lives lead us to regular times of self-examination, confession and repentance. Psalm 32 models this: “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity…And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”  Psalm 51 then provides us a simple prayer inviting God to pluck sin from our lives and cleanse us from its ill-effects. Join me in praying today:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.”

Psalm 51:1-2

REFLECT & DISCUSS:

1. How do you feel about ticks? What is it about them that literally makes our skin crawl? Share an experience of removing ticks.

2. How are ticks and sin similar? How are they different? 

3. Why are we often reluctant to repent and confess our sins to God? What are we afraid of?

4. What happens when we don’t deal with our sin? What happens when we do confess our sins according to these psalms?