Legalism, Love, and Sitting Down to Pee

Unrelated (I think) to any historical ties, Germany and Japan have a lot of cultural similarities. Most obviously, they remove their shoes in the house. (And once you realize how much crap (literally!) you are tracking into your home when you don’t, who wouldn’t?) But, I also found out quite recently, most German and Japanese men sit down to pee.

As I sat down to pee recently, it struck me that the issue (noun, not verb) is a perfect illustration of the legalism-love concept. There are a lot of argument for sitting down to pee (at home anyway). It is cleaner. It has been shown to be healthier. It is relaxing. However, in places like Germany, they can be rather legalistic about it. They want to force you to do the right thing. And that is ultimately the core of legalism. It ceases to be about all the benefits and good, and instead becomes a law to control and judge people over.

Instead, men should consider sitting down voluntarily out of a desire to benefit others. If you don’t live alone, you will benefit the other people living in your home who will not have to clean up after poor aiming events, or worse, sit down in them.

And that is where this makes for such a perfect illustration. One of the ways of looking at sin is “missing the mark.” When we do things our way instead of the God-intended way, we “miss the mark” and harm ourselves and others. In the case of the standing or sitting debate, missing the mark is a literal danger. And the choices are clear: (1) Sin with abandon, pee all over the place, and living with the horrible consequences. (2) Be legalistic and controlling. Put signs up all over the bathroom causing sinful men to stand out of spite. Or (3) love other and ourselves by siting down and thus avoid sin and its dreadful stain!