Sin For A Season

[Image: 'Meltdown' Front Cover]

Sections:

Lyrics

There's a sweaty hand handling his cocktail napkin
"Come on up and see me" is scribbled with a gold pen
"But you'd better ring twice"

Seven months after his little indiscretion
He sits with his wife at a therapy session
For a little advice

"If the healing happens as the time goes by
Tell me why I still can't look her in the eye"

"God I'm only human, got no other reason"
Sin for a season

There's a shaky hand shaking with the hand of her hostess
Drank a little much, but she'll drive herself home
If she can make it to her car

She never saw the sign or the boy with his daddy
Driving home late from their very first ballgame
And they don't get far

Now the years run together as her guilt goes wild
She still sees the body of an only child

"God I'm only human, got no other reason"
Sin for a season

Wealthy lips say "keep us from the Evil One"
While the praying hands prey with deliberate cunning
On the carcass of the cold

Gonna get the good Lord to forgive a little sin
Get the slate cleaned so he can dirty it again
And no one else will ever know

But he reaps his harvest as his heart grows hard
No man's gonna make a mockery of God

"I'm only human, got no other reason"
Sin for a season

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About The Song

From Clone Club News Flash Spring/Summer 1984, Spring/Summer 1984:

Hebrews 11 says, "By faith Moses...chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Paul wrote in Galatians, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps with he sows." God's forgiveness is always available, and His forgiveness is always complete. But "Sin For A Season" was written as a reminder that God's forgiveness doesn't necessarily remove the earthy consequences of our sin.

From Who Does Not Want To Be a Clone?, Campus Life, January 1987:

A particular person was the catalyst for this song--a Christian musician. Without going into things, let's just say that this person was living a double life. There may have been private remorse, but there was no public acknowledgment, no sense that maybe it was time to get out of Christian music. Or at least get life back together before continuing in the business.

The problem is, when you're in high school, you tend to look for justifications to do what you want, even if you know it's wrong. People in Christian music must be careful with their lifestyles: the audience is watching.

I wanted this song to stress: Even though God's forgiveness is always available and is always complete, there are earthly consequences to our actions.

From Now The Truth Can Be Told Liner Notes & Song-By-Song Essays, Now The Truth Can Be Told Insert Booklet, August 23rd, 1994:

The title was a direct rip from Hebrews 1:1--"By faith Moses...chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." The theme was a direct rip from the Apostle Paul--"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

It seems these days we find it much easier to confess that we're sinners, than to admit that our actions have consequences. If the three vignettes in the lyrics occasionally veer towards melodrama, I hope I can be excused by the seriousness of the subject matter. The moral failures of our day all to often get shrugged off by the mantra of "we're all just human." This song is about the nasty residue.