Unforeseen - the Mighty Smiter

I have been reading Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book about Lies and I came to the conclusion that all sin, when all the reasons and excuses are exhausted, basically comes down to a Lie...either to yourself or to someone else.  In the book she cites writings from a client that said: Sin is the best news there is, the best news there could be in our predicament.  Because with sin, there's a way out.  There's the possibility of repentance.  You can't repent of confusion or psychological flaws inflicted by your parents - you're stuck with them.  But you can repent of sin.  Sin and repentance are the only grounds for hope and joy." 

I thought this was a curious statement, until I had read it over many times; and I think what the writer intended is that without the "knowledge" of sin, we would always just carry on doing what we've always done - shift the blame to a parent or genetics or the ills of society.  But with an awareness that sin is any thought, word or deed against a just God, then we "know" there is something we must eventually do about it...if we believe in Him and seek His mercy.  It's our choice.  Choose life or choose death.  

This morning, I read a passage from Frederick Buechner's daily meditations, Listening to Your Life, and it tied in with the above passage somewhat.  It said, "God's coming is always unforeseen, I think, and the reason, if I had to guess, is that if He gave us anything much in the way of advance warning, more often than not we would have made ourselves scarce long before He got there."  I pondered this passage for a while, and I concluded this: if we are aware of sin and have reached a point where we realize we are hopeless to conquer it; we have no one else to blame for it; yet we refuse to run to the cross of Christ...then the only other alternative is to race with the devil.  And, if as we were running, God showed up...I think Buechner is saying that we would hide in the shadows, but the hounds of hell would sniff us out, because God's appearance at unforeseen times is not always to evoke joy and comfort.  Sometimes he shows up just to smite us.