Church in the Wild

It is funny how timeless the Bible is. This Scripture applies to the world today and especially my generation. It seems like so many young people make decisions without truly thinking about the future. They don’t try to analyze even the simplest foreseeable outcomes and it results in their own pain and suffering. People do things that will bring instant gratification. They make decisions that solve immediate problems or urges, but in the end will cause more harm than it does good.

Think about these young girls who get pregnant on purpose. They are trying to solve an immediate issue, or scratch an itch. That might be loneliness, or they may be trying to keep their boyfriends,or possibly trying to prove their status as an adult. But they are not thinking about the effects that this decision will have on their lives and the lives of their child. Often these children are still living at home with their parents who are already scraping by on food stamps and child support. Not to mention that a child makes it more difficult (not impossible) to finish school. I could talk for days about the negative effects, but the bottom line is, it is poor decision making. Now as a Christian I also do not advocate abortions. Do you see where I am going? Better decision making has to start from the top. 

Every decision that we make has the potential to have a long and lasting impact on our lives. By treating decisions trivially and only concerning ourselves with immediate pleasure, we endanger ourselves. We must be prudent so that we can foresee danger if it is the outcome of a decision. I am not saying that we should never take risks in life, but if those risks could harm us more than the immediate effect helps us, and if we are infringing on someone else’s quality of life (even a child) then perhaps it is not an endeavor worth pursuing. 

As a college student a lot of my peers treated student loans like they were from Satan himself. I have even seen individuals not go to college or drop out of college because they could not fund it without student loans. What I don’t get is why would you not want to invest in yourself? Do you not have faith in yourself to succeed? Yes you have to pay student loans back, but why is that such a terrible thing. Truth is, without an education in 2012 you are probably going to be doomed to working in food services or some other hourly job getting paid much less than you need to survive and you are STILL going to have to take out a loan at some point to put food on the table. The only difference will be that you are not investing in yourself. You are simply borrowing money (with a much higher interest rate). We have to see further than “After I graduate my student loans will be due”. Your life will be so much better than it would without an education.

Don’t be the one who passes on and is punished because of a lack of prudence and planning. Look to the future and try to predict its outcomes so that you can foresee hardships and be prepared for them.