Pastor Tom and I meet with a group of Senior’s every Wednesday to study the book for Romans (many of you have been a part of that group)! Yesterday Tom was talking about his experience of going to High School reunions and recognizing that for the most part people as adults were the same as they were in High School. The students that struggled with drugs, continued to struggle with drugs, etc. It was interesting hearing the seniors respond incredulously that “people that old (Tom’s age) still act like that!” The truth, unfortunately, is yes they do!
I have been studying Mere Christianity by CS Lewis with my small group and the reading from this past week spoke directly to this subject. I will share it with you:
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”
I am always frightened and saddened when I hear people state things like “I will start living better when I have a family”, “While I am young I am going to enjoy my freedom”, “This small thing will not hurt me or anyone else”, etc. I know this to not be true!! It sounds cliché but the habits of tomorrow begin as habits today. And, even if it were easy to begin living a “good” life after years of living “however one pleases”, why would you waste those years? If a person knows that is ultimately not the kind of life they want to live, why live that way now?
For some of you, you have been living lives that fall short of the lives that God desires for you and that you desire for yourself. For you, I offer this encouragement: While I recognized some of the same things that Tom talked about at my 10 year High School reunion (yes, I am that old), I also witnessed the redemptive hope of God’s love at work in some of my classmate’s lives! The greatest thing about God’s love for us is that it is available to all!
