Brian Castelli – With His Heart

This time of year we often find ourselves at graduation ceremonies. My family and I visited a local church recently to be present for their “Graduate Sunday”–a time when they recognize the seniors who have been a part of the church family.

The text for the day was Philippians 1: 9-11:

1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight 1:10 so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, 1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

(http://beta.net.bible.org/#!bible/Philippians+1)

The preacher highlighted three things that really stuck with me:

1. Of all the things Paul could have wanted for the Philippians–safety, wealth, health, etc.–his prayer for them was that they love more and more.  (Verse 9)
2. That they will be careful to know the difference between what’s “good” and what’s “best.” (Verse 10) Not settling just for what’s good. Not settling for what they can do to get by.
3. That they will bring God glory. (Verse 11)

The preacher urged the graduates–and the rest of us–to ask ourselves the following questions on an ongoing basis:

• Am I settling for good, or am I striving after what’s best?
• Am I making choices that please God, that bring glory to Him?

Our job is not done. As these graduates move on, they need us to pray and encourage them to strive for the best and to make God-pleasing choices.

I came across an article on MSNBC today. I was intrigued by the title: One tiny truffle may lead to more indulgence. The article sites the work of a couple of Florida researchers, Juliano Laran of the University of Miami and Chris Janiszewski of the University of Florida Gainesville. The bottom line: Giving into a small temptation may be the first step down a slippery slope of indulgence. Are you surprised? I doubt it. You and I live on the same planet, after all.

I think it’s safe to apply the slippery slope rule to sin in our lives. A man know used to be a decent, stand-up guy. Then his wife left him for another man. For a while he seemed like the same guy. Then he started messing around with other women. Then I began to observe hints of other immoral behavior. He even started lying to me to cover it all up. A new man emerged – one that seems to have gone deeper and deeper into a lifestyle that does not suit him. I believe he is on the slippery slope.

Laran and Janiszewski characterize their research in terms of goal conflict. Their study shows that whether people give in to that first temptation and how they react when they do corresponds to how firmly held their goals are. A person who has strong convictions about eating healthy will be less likely to indulge in the first place and more likely to return to healthy eating habits if they do. I can’t resist the urge to tie this conclusion to sin in our lives as well.

One of my firmly-held beliefs is that we ought to have good reasons for our choices. When we understand why we make the choices we do we are more likely to be consistent with our goals. Let’s use the example of a young woman who refrains from having sex before marriage because she’s afraid of what her mother will think. Under constant pressure from her boyfriend, she may give in and discover that her mother’s reaction isn’t so bad. She becomes more and more willing until pre-marital sex becomes a “natural” way of relating to the men she dates. The slide down the slippery slope began because she didn’t have a really good reason for her behavior. If, however, the young woman understands that pre-martial sex is wrong – not just because her mother says so, but because it is against God’s plan for her life, that it is a violation of the purity she brings to her marriage, that it is a betrayal of her vows to her future husband, and is a step of disobedience to her Lord and Savior – she is less likely to give in to her boyfriend’s advances.

Translate this into what it means for us. If we are living our lives to please Jesus, we will be less likely to give in when temptation comes our way, and, for those times when we do give in, we will be quick to repent and return to Him. If our world view is consistent with the truth found in scripture, we are much less likely to make choices that involve us in sin.

A weird little thing happened this week.

I was browsing at the local game shop on Sunday evening. I found a used copy of Madden 2008, last year’s version of the football franchise game I’ve heard very good things about. $10. I bought it. Of course, the game container I brought to the counter was empty. I guess it’s far too easy to steal a DVD. They keep the DVD’s in a drawer behind the counter. The young man took the container, removed a disk from the drawer, inserted into the container, and handed the container back to me. I paid and went home.

The game sat on the shelf until Tuesday. I loaded the game in my console without giving the disk even a second glance. The logo for Madden 2009 filled my TV screen. Woo-hoo! A $50+ game for only $10! My daughter and I played through one game – Bears (my daughter) vs. Panthers. She crushed me 36-12.

As that first game wore on, I grew increasingly uneasy. I was upset about being beaten, of course, but I was even more upset by my conscience. I didn’t pay for Madden ‘09. I paid for Madden ‘08. The more I thought about it, the less I had to think about it. There was one clearly right path. There were other paths I could have taken, but each of them required some kind of justification or excuse. I took the game back to the store last night.

The guy at the store was impressed. He was clearly surprised by my action. I would have gotten away with it. No one would have blamed me for keeping it. But it wasn’t right. What kind of example should I be for my daughter? The guy who did the right thing or the guy who got away with it?

I didn’t write this post to build myself up or to make you think I’m all righteous and everything. I wrote this post because of my initial reaction. When I discovered the error in my favor, I was all about keeping it. My first, strongest and most natural reaction was to, of course, keep it! Duh! What else would I do? What would you do? In the end, though, it wasn’t *me* who decided to return it. It was really the Holy Spirit of God working through my conscience that drove me to do the right thing. This is yet another example of how following Jesus Christ makes a difference. Not by my power, but by His!