A news
headline this past week read, “Cellphone call limits suggested by Health
Canada”. The story went on to say that,
though more study is needed, parents should encourage children to limit the
time that they spend talking on their cellphones. The concern comes from the radiation that
cellphones emit and the thinking that it may harm children whose brains, skulls
and immune systems are still developing.
In church
on Sunday, I asked, “Have any of you done anything differently in light of this
warning?” Interestingly, though most
people had seen the story (or others like it), not one person said that they
had changed their actions. Why?
I think it
has to do with the fact that the consequences are not immediate. The issue, if there is one, is going to surface,
not now, but 30 years from now, so we just keep doing what we do. If the consequence was immediate, if you
burned your ear every time you used your phone, you would likely change your
actions immediately.
I think we
often apply the same thinking to sin. In
fact, we have come up with lists of what we think are “big sins” (such as murder
and adultery) and “little sins” (such as gossip and “little white lies”) based,
mostly, on the immediacy and severity of the consequence. If I cheat on my wife, for example, I lose my
family, my house, my money and maybe my job (that is a big deal). If, on the other hand, I gossip about
someone, generally speaking nothing really visible happens (so I am less
concerned about it).
But what
if, ultimately, all sin is rightly understood as a rebellion against God and,
therefore, has the same consequence? Sin,
“big” or “small”, puts distance between God and me.
“This is
the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk
in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7)
While I
will never be perfect, my thoughts and actions are important, not only because
of what happens now, but because they are ultimately forming my character and,
therefore, affecting my relationship with God.
That is worth some thought.
“Just as he who called you is
holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’”
(1 Peter 1:15-16)
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