Definition of Sin

I have often used the term missing the mark to define sin. I picked this up from C. S. Lewis mere Christianity.  But recently I have been playing with a different definition one that more closely matches the original sin by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Now it would be easy to say the the original sin was simply disobedience. God gave Adam and Eve one law and they broke the law. This in fact is an accurate description. But I want to know what caused them to want to break the law. If we understand that we might know more about our own nature and understand the part of our nature that is bad or corrupt.  This concept about having a corrupt nature is a doctrinal concept called total depravity.

So back to Adam and Eve, what was it that gave them the desire to break the one law?  I think the words that were spoken by the serpent and their response gives us clues. I think it had to do with the fact that they didn't know everything, but if they knew everything, by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then they would be like God. And when they were tempted with this lie by the devil, they leaped for it, the wanted to know everything and they wanted to be like God.

You see, they weren't satisfied with only knowing a part and only being a part of all of creation.  We have this same condition today.  We want to be famous.  We want to be a big part of what is going on. 

Now this will apply to leadership in a big way. Usually a leader will by default have the most experience and competency in his organization. And this can lead him to think that he has a larger piece of knowledge than anyone else and thus is the best person to make the decisions that guide his company.  The problem with this model is it will never allow the group of people being led to function as a team with fully bought in members. As decisions are made for members by those more experienced and competent those members will feel they don't have responsibility and skin in the game, their commitment level will drop.

A leader may know all the best technical decisions, but if the team is not fully in, there are a million little ways that this group will function at a lower level.  If however a leader recognizes the greatest result will come when everyone is fully in the game with all of their heart and identity, then the leader will look for opportunities to delegate decisions to lower level team members.  He will try to develope support structures to assist the person in charge at that lower level to use for helping him or her make a better decisions.

Those that succeed will be the ones who like the leader, are not trying to be more than they are.  Those with humility to ask for help and who are willing to reveal weakness will be the ones that begin to rise in the organization.

So to lead like a sinner, you as the leader must recognize that you are only a small part, you only see from one perspective, you only know certain things, you because of who you are make decisions often from your own personality strengths and weaknesses.  Only as you recognize your need of the strengths and perspectives of others, only as you see yourself with humility as only a small slice of the pie, will you begin to connect to others, need others and depend on others in a manner that will bring your team together.

And when you begin to do this.......watch out!