Late one night, I was sitting at home pondering the day. I thought to myself, "Hey, don't you have some homework to do?" "In fact, I do have some," I replied to myself as I sometimes do. "Maybe I should get on it; I know it's due tomorrow." Well, good intent never gets the job done. Good intentions, instead of actions, started my night of sinful pleasure.

When we look at the words "sin" and "pleasure," our minds might race to thoughts of provocatively dressed women, sexually charged situations, or our neighbors coming over in the middle of the night to "put out the fire." Well, that is all fine and good, I suppose, if that is the way we want to look at these words. Who am I to tell the rest of the world how to think, what to believe, or what is right or wrong? I am not a college professor, and I am definitely not as learned in the ways of the world as most of the authors I have been reading in my English classes. I am just an average person with his own world to deal with--day by day, problem by problem. On the other hand, I guess I am not as average as I think I am, because I handle my problems in a different manner than the average person does.

The problem I have sometimes is dealing with the thinking pattern that the rest of the world has towards life. This pattern holds true to the example above, in which most all of us think something dirty about the words "sinful pleasure." My night consisted of no nudity, no sexual thoughts (intentional ones, anyway), and no fire hose carrying women in wet t-shirts. My night consisted of reading the Bible. Since everyone reading this response paper has totally flipped out over that statement and now wears "that" look of confusion (the one that distorts every muscle from the hairline to the tip of the chin), let me explain.

The sinful part of my night consisted of not doing the assignment that I had been assigned days earlier. This is a sin, and as a Christian I need to try my hardest not to sin. Several verses in the Bible look at laziness, hard work, and the right thing to do in order to be a good example of Christian values. Ephesians 6:7 and 6:8 say this about working: "Go with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is slave or free." In my case, I am a slave to school for the time being, at least concerning the fact that I have to work to finish. I have to do service as to the Lord and not to men; therefore, if I do a poor job at school I am doing a poor job for God. This leads me to the statement that "I am a sinner"; thus, I had a sinful night.

The pleasure came in a different way that night. I did not realize how much of a sin being lazy is until I started writing this essay. However, I did realize how much pleasure I get out of reading a practical manual for everyday life before the mouse moved on this screen. Reading the Bible is a pleasurable experience for me, just as reading any other book would be to the average American (if the average American had a clue as to what God is about, he/she would not settle for any other book). This leads me to the pleasure part of my night. Being close to God through His word brings me pleasure, so I had a pleasure-filled night.

I am not trying to say that all people are evil, terrible life forms if they do not read the Bible everyday. I am not trying to say that, if we have dirty thoughts, we are sinners. That is not for me to decide. But I can say, by power invested in me by God, to my Christian brothers and sisters, "You should be in the Word everyday." I can also tell my friends in Him, "If you think dirty thoughts, you are a sinner." This is an explanation of my pleasurable night of sin, and I am glad that I had it instead of the night proposed by the world on pleasurable nights of sin.