Are You Close to the Line?
Friday, December 21, 2012 at 3:00AM 
Our lives are a series of seemingly trivial choices that add up. Why do I harp on some trivial things? Even I think they are trivial. But these trivial decisions add up. Having a Big Mac is not a big deal, but after a lifetime of Big Macs...see where that gets you. In my case it had me lying on a table with tubes stuck in my belly as they removed cancer.
This is a quote from a novel I am reading, Jim Butcher's Cold Days. The hero had aligned himself with evil, for all the best of reasons, at least it seemed so at the time.
Murphy said quietly. “No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens?” She shook her head, her eyes pained. “It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realize that they’re so far over the line that they can’t remember where it was.”
How far over the line am I? I see areas where I might be. After the excesses of the holiday season, New Year's is the traditional time to think about such things. I suggest you do so. Not all of our cultural traditions are bad. While I do not expect any of my readers are "over the line," I think each of us, through drifting along in life without much thought, are a lot closer to the line than we realize. Most of the big sins in our lives often begin with neglect.
Here are some Bible verses that might be helpful.
Galatians 6:7 ESV
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Matthew 24:42 ESV
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
The example of Sodom is interesting. Ezekiel 16 tells us what their sin was.
49 Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
Coming to a Town Near You? That is not the sin I was expecting.
Sodom had neglected the poor. They did not know that God was coming. What have we neglected--both individually and nationally? Can we be so sure that God is not coming for the US in the same way He came for Sodom?
Not much you can do about the nation. But think about what you have neglected personally. Try not to neglect that next year, the little decisions add up.
Reader Comments (2)
Dennis, - enjoyed your blog posts, but would like to add that New Year's is actually a holyday in the catholic church as is christmas. It's not a secular day but a religious festival.
Thanks