The Difference Is In The Details

Our choices have outcomes. Some outcomes are better than others. In both physical and spiritual realms the difference is in the details.

A. One offers the benefit of death

“What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!” Romans 3:21

We all have chinks in our armor. Despite however safe-guarded we are about our character and our behavior, we all, like those Medieval knights of old, have points of vulnerability where a well-placed arrow can pierce our defenses and take us down. And if not all of us, most of us have stuff in our past that is embarrassing or that we are ashamed of. And when we look back at those times in our lives, though we may have learned some things and while things may have been ironed out in the end, at the time there was no positive benefit from that time… in fact, those times are quite hurtful to others and to ourselves.

When we lived in Red Oak, IA there was a man who worked for the city of Council Bluffs when the casinos began to spring up on the Iowa side of the Missouri River. It all started out every so small but then hesitation gave way to ease and effortlessness to habitual until he had maxed out all of his credit cards, lost his house and was divorced by his wife.

So what benefit did he reap from that time in his life? He lost it all, so to speak. And what benefit does the person who succumbs to the lure of internet pornography or an extra-marital affair, or an addiction, or deception, or gossip, or greed, or bitterness, or jealousy and envy, or dishonesty, or abusive behaviors, or whatever…? Can we call debt, broken relationships, addictions, distrust, injury to oneself and others, guilt, shame and embarrassment benefits?

However, to the contrary there is the choice that results in not only a good and satisfying life… it results in eternal life.

B. One offers the benefit of eternal life

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Romans 3:22

The book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates tells the story of two men with the same name. Both were born in Maryland. Both men grew up with single moms. Both had run-ins with the law by the time they were 11 years-old. But at this point their stories they took different paths.

One Wes Moore became a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of John Hopkins and eventually was named a Rhodes Scholar. He served as a White House Fellow under former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice. He is an Afghanistan combat veteran. He also went on to write the book The Other Wes Moore.

The other Wes Moore resides in Jessup Correctional Institute’s maximum security unit. He is serving a life sentence without parole for the shooting death of a Baltimore police officer.

Wes Moore wrote in his book, “My mother could teach me to be a good person, but she couldn’t teach me to be a good man.” He cites family members and friends and teachers who intervened in his life after his father died when he was 3 years-old.