Posts Tagged: bad choices

“Tragedies: One Way they Happen”

On February 6, 2019 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer


Recently, a young man who was pretending to be suicidal lured some local police officers to his apartment.  He shot two of them, one fatally, while live-streaming it over the internet.

What causes a young man to go so terribly wrong?  There is probably no point in asking the question.  We will likely never know the answer.

However, I will tell you one way in which people can go terribly wrong.  It is the way that I went terribly wrong a few decades ago.

Now, I did not kill anyone, so set your mind at ease about that.  However, I was a walking time bomb, filled with lust and rage and bitterness.  And while the bomb has been defused, it is sometimes good to remember how messed up I was.  It might be good for you to hear how I got that way.  Maybe you can, at least in some measure, identify your own tendencies to go wrong.  I hope and pray that your tendencies aren’t as strong as mine were.  Still, the bottom line is that it is always possible for all of us to go terribly wrong.

Were there some external factors?  Probably so.  But I want to focus on how I myself contributed to my own demise.

It was really quite simple.  All I did was this: Whenever I came to two possible decisions about how I would live my life, I took the slightly worse one.  Having had eight beers, I would switch over to double shots of whiskey.  I would not allow my friend (who had stopped with three beers over the course of the evening) to drive.  No!  I was going to drive.

I could date this girl or that girl.  I would choose the one who was slightly worse for me.

Was there someone at work who was irritating me?  I would surprise them with a right hook to the face.

I was a mess.  It got to the point where there were no good choices to be made, only the choice between two evils.  And the evils were getting more and more evil.  I was quite close to making a final decision that landed me in prison or the grave.

Is this always the way terribly wrong decisions bear their bitter fruit?  Perhaps not, but I suspect that this is the way things go down more often than not.

Nowadays, when I come to the point of choice, I try to make the slightly better choice.  God has made some progress with me in that regard.  Therefore, I often get to choose between two good things.

We all have choices every day.  Oatmeal, or pancakes.  Leave on time for our appointment, or speed.  Call a friend who can hold us accountable, or call an old lover.

Great evil comes from little choices.  And little choices grow up in a hurry.

Great good also comes from little choices.  They usually grow more slowly than bad choices, but they do mature.

Choose wisely today!  I will try to do the same!

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