Our culture puts such an emphasis on self esteem that we miss the fact that shame (who you think you are) and guilt (what you did) are important parts of being human. From a Christian perspective, an awareness of shame is the razor and alarm between absolute right and wrong. You pose the question of Christian vs. non-Christian friends, but I submit to you that Christians will also give you a multitude of meanings to define the word “sin”.

For the Christian, there is a calculated way of dealing with sin. You turn from it, confess it, address it, and learn from it. Modern culture (outside of Christianity) tries to cast it as a normal, advantageous loop-hole that may have mild side effects.

We caught an episode of Desperate Housewives last week and during a commercial break, there was a Sprint commercial showing people using their phones to catch their husbands and wives in adulterous situations. My immediate thought was “how could and why would anyone want to buy or use a product sold by a company using adultery to market their goods?!”

I wonder what the next 40 years will hold and what cool new packaging will have to be employed to bring the gift of the gospel to non-believers.