Day 3025 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Proverbs 14:12 NIV

We break into your regularly scheduled program to bring you an extremely urgent PSA.

Most days I try to build a post off the idea shared the day before. Not really sure why, maybe just seems to flow better that way. Maybe it's because the Bible always has more to say in regard to a particular topic, and well, we can always use as much help with most of them as we can get. Or it might that the entirety of Scripture is itself one conglomerate lesson that takes all these differing truths and combines them into a singular command to build our life in the Way.

But today I've something weighing so heavily on my mind that I know I can't find a way around it. And as much as I've always tried to avoid making these daily discussions too much about me, I find myself in the midst of a kind of monstrosity that I feel this desperate need to hopefully help others avoid if at all possible. I just always want to keep these about God and the truth He's given us as the blueprint to instruct us in how we're to build our lives in Christ.

Yet, maybe the lessons we each individually learn along our paths riddled with countless mistakes and the most egregious of errors are there to help as well. Anyway. Onto the point.

So much of life is approached with this sort of nonchalant attitude that almost entirely prevents us from seeing the true gravity of what we usually assume to be rather insignificant choices. We've perhaps become such products of this world that we can't even fathom that our choices could truly prove to be not only wrong, but so wrong that they do in fact deserve eternal suffering.

And should you have been following along for any length of time, I know that you've likely grown weary of all the talk about sin and its cost covered in these posts. I know that our hearts and ears crave the lighter offerings presented by the promises of peace and rewards waiting for us up ahead. I know that the heavy weight of the reality of our condition isn’t at all enjoyable to talk about and that the discussion of it therefore grows rather burdensome after a while.

But friends, what very few people tell you is what nobody ever really seems to imagine. Nobody imagines that a single choice made in haste or in foolishness or in this pressure to fit in and feel like you belong could potentially become a prison from which you cannot escape. Nobody tells you that mistakes leave scars that never seem to fully heal. Nobody tells you that sin can mess you up in ways that you'll have to carry the rest of your life here.

No, most try to downplay it so that they themselves don't have to admit or address the severity of the fallen nature crumbling within. This society spews this message saying that everything is okay, that nothing should be off-limits, that as long as it makes you happy or causes you to feel good then it is good. Friends, I'm here begging you to not fall for it. I'm here to tell you that there is a kind of evil in this world that will dissolve every ounce of hope you may think you have.

I'm here to tell you from personal experience that some things should not be played with, because it's a game that cannot be won but will only lost in a kind of misery that only a miracle can shake off.

But that's a message that's hard to hear by ears used to hearing the light-hearted attempts to keep our guards down. It's a reality ill-conceived by minds entirely convinced all the world's lies are truth simply because they sound just right in a way that matches up with our heart's desires. It's a truth that so many refuse to consider as it simply refuses to comfort our hopes that our mistakes aren't really there all so that our guilt doesn't have to be either.

However, our not wanting to face the consequences doesn't mean they're not there. Our not wanting to admit our guilt doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Our refusal to acknowledge our mistakes doesn't make them disappear. All our dismissal and denial of our fallen reality really does is form the blocks of prison cells we can't see our choices building around us.

Years ago, back in middle school, sixth grade to be exact, I was welcomed to learn a lesson that I'd not know for years would be learned the hard way. I was invited into a world that I should have run as far and as fast away from as quickly as my short little legs could carry me. I was presented with a choice that a young kid didn't know would be of such significance that it would create a tidal wave of regret so high that I'd still be reeling from it and trying to find the surface even decades later. I just thought it was the thing to do simply because all my friends were.

That single choice opened a door that I've been trying and failing to crawl back out of ever since.

Because we've only been taught to judge things by the popularity, by the enjoyment, by the pleasure, by the fun. Never look deeper. Never think it through. Never ask any questions. Never take the time to follow the path that a choice may lead you down. No, just assume the best and ignore all the warnings of what may eventually be the worst. And our human gullibility mixed with our intense arrogance which tells us that our hearts know what's best creates this perfect storm which will indeed sink our ships so far from shore that we cannot make it back.

I think the problem is that our choices tend to carry with them such little immediate repercussion that we don't give them the consideration they need to have in order to be made correctly. We just float through this life always assuming the best and never imagining just how bad things could become should that best prove impossible. And that's what I beg everyone to understand.

The choices we make carry with them costs that we may not see at the start. But eventually, 10, 15, 40 years down the line, those costs will come due, and when they do, we may well find ourselves unable to afford them.

That's the danger in sin. It looks great, feels great, sounds great. It literally offers us everything we want with the promise that nothing bad will ever come from it. It's a custom-curated gift of our own choosing, and when it seems to be everything we crave without a single immediate cause for concern, we open the door and dive headlong into as much as we can stomach. Completely unaware that we just dove into a prison that will remain a part of our story so long as we're on this soil.

For me, it was lust. A world filled with images flashing on a screen that would remain long after the power was turned off. For others, maybe it's drugs. Could be alcohol. Might be rage, hatred, jealousy. Junk food. Laziness. Complacency. Fear. Failures that seem to be impossible to break free from making again and again. Doubt. Denial. Arrogance. Entitlement. Selfishness. Greed. The list goes on and on simply because the world knows only to invent new ways to do wrong in order to make people feel right. Such a hopeless search for happiness in a place that has only darkness to offer.

And that's why we have to understand the true importance of every single choice we make in this life. Because, honestly, most of the options we're given to choose from are absolute garbage that only seek to stain our minds and drag us into a sample of what awaits at the end of a life spent making choices as if they didn't matter. That's the point that I truly hope everyone who reads this can take away. Every choice matters more than we can possibly fathom.

Because a single choice may well become a prison sentence that may last forever.

Now I understand, nobody wants to hear about this. Nobody wants to take up the amount of responsibility required in this life. Nobody wants to slow down so that every choice is made the best way we can. Nobody wants to limit their lives or let go of things that they enjoy or let loose the paths and plans that seem so perfect that you can already taste their sweetness. Nobody wants to do what needs to be done.

But please believe me when I say that nobody wants to carry the weight of wishing you'd done what should have been done so that you don't have to lose sleep, lose peace, lose hope. Because as much as it may suck to limit our lives and take as much caution and care as possible with every choice one makes, it sucks far worse to know you can't go back and make better ones that would have allowed you to avoid learning the hard way that only left scars you can't wash off.

In the end, we have to stop looking at how good something looks. We have to stop making choices based on how great something feels. We have to start thinking about the path a choice may lead us down. Because every choice blends into another made next. And given enough time, enough bad choices made for foolish reasons can destroy a life in a way that only a miracle can help.

We do have that miracle. We do have that help. We do have the promise of healing and salvation and the mercy that makes them possible. We do have Christ, and His love is enough to forgive us for all we've done and all we do foolishly against Him and His commands. We do have the undeserved gift of God's amazing grace. But friends, we'll still be left knowing what we've done, because as I've personally seen, the memories don't disappear.

And so if a choice could possibly lead you in a direction you don't want to go, toward mistakes you don't want to make, that might leave scars you don't want to have, don't do it. Please. Please don't do it. Don't do something that you think is right just because it feels good. Don't do something you think it right just because everyone else is doing it. Don't do something without thinking it through. Don't do something without asking God, without reading His Word, without seeking His will.

We're all going to make mistakes, but we shouldn't take that so lightly that we lose our fear of messing up and letting Him down. That's how the world lives. That's how this broken society thinks. That's how a fallen humanity has always chosen to behave. When will we put our foot down and decide to not be the results of patterns put in place by those who went before us? When will we accept the request to be different?

Friends, life isn't as carefree and simple as we try so hard to make it. Every choice we make carries a cost that we will have to pay one way or another. And while repentance is the gift that helps us make better choices, we only seek repentance once we realize that we've messed up so badly that death is scratching at our heels. And trust me, that's a kind of miserable feeling that even hope sometimes struggles to fight against.

One day each of us will answer for the lives we've lived and the many choices we've made within them. And while most of those choices seem insignificant, and some may prove to be rather miniscule, every single one of them has the potential to adjust our course just enough to eventually cause us to end up heading in a direction that leads only away from all the good we've been offered in Jesus.

This really is one of those 'wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy' kind of situations. I don't want anyone to have to carry what I have. Don't want anyone to wrestle with the fears and doubts that my past choices have inspired in me. Don't want anyone to walk such a desolate road only to find death waiting at the end.

That’s why I truly hope to encourage you to learn to look beyond how something appears. Think past the part that makes a choice seem perfect. Consider every possible outcome, even the ones you don't like, especially the ones you won't like. Because life isn't about having fun and feeling good and all this other 'best life' nonsense. Life is about learning that our choices are indeed far below His commands, and seeking the humility that allows the former to die that the latter may thrive in us and all we do.

Truth be told, this world offers us so much death that we should be entirely hesitant to make any decision. We should be willing to take the time to ask God to lead us instead of letting ourselves or our surroundings do the job. But that’s often a lesson learned the hard way. And since I have, I hope that maybe you won't. Because what starts as fun and popular and pleasing could well prove only painful and disparaging and tragic. And no amount of initial enjoyment can make the weight of regret lessen or become a lighter burden to carry.

Don’t believe that you have to rush through life soaking up as much enjoyment as possible. Be courageous enough to live slow and think smart. Just might save you from living a life buried beneath a kind of shame that can only soften but may never vanish on this side of forever.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold