1 Kings 21:17-29 / Mt 5:43-48
Every year without fail, there is heartbreaking news at almost every high school of any size: Some students have been killed in a tragic accident. A glance backward at old high school yearbooks reconfirms such events in times gone by, and the newspapers announce that the pattern continues. There’s a sense of immortality and immunity to danger that causes teenagers to take foolish risks. It persuades them that they can escape the consequences of foolish choices.
We might be tempted to mock their immaturity and the arrogance of their youth, but the slightest glance at our own repeated disconnect between actions and consequences should short circuit that harsh judgment in a trice. Somehow so many of us have this strange unspoken belief that we have the unique power to render ourselves immune from the old adage that “what goes around comes around.”
We can’t! God has created a wonderfully complex world in which consequences happen — not always right away, but they happen.
Choose life! Choose to walk with the Lord and His big family. You’ll like the consequences!