Hold Fast

I just have a question: Why is it so easy to do wrong? Okay, so I have two questions: Why is it so hard to do right...all the time? I had that question posed to me yesterday by one of my co-workers who's thinking he may go back to prison. 


The easy answer is that it's because there is a God deficiency; that it's easy to do "wrong" when you don't recognize God's desire for your life. The difficult answer, I've found in witnessing to others, is telling them just how to do the right thing. What is there, a step by step manual for how to make the best decision you can everyday? OK, OK, those of you who are Christians are jumping up and down saying, "Yes, there is - the Bible!" 


That's true but to avoid polarizing my audience I just want to stick to my question(s). Why is it easy to do "wrong?"  I think it's because guys like me have been doing whatever we want for so long. We often don't change instantly over night, it's a process of putting ourselves in situations that led us to do right. For instance: I kid you not almost everyone smokes at the job site. I see it everywhere. Then, here at the halfway house I can't find a person who doesn't chew tobacco at night. Those both were a problem for me. I used to do them both - sometimes at the same time. 


In prison I could resist all that stuff because I had a core group of brothers who could/would watch my every move. It would be both difficult and impossible to get away with hiding it from them. So the temptation wasn't there at all. I'd have 5 brothers on me before I pulled the stamps (jail house currency) from my pocket. Out here? It's legal, it's everywhere. In most circles it's acceptable. I would never have wondered at the difficulty, or the easiness of a decision not to smoke had I not been faced with the decision everyday to choose not to. 


There really is no temptation for me concerning tobacco. That's so off putting to me now. For one because God wants me to stay healthy and two, I'm a distance runner and putting poison in my body doesn't sound delectable. My point though is that we all have decisions to make each day and the right ones become the norm over time. It's not an overnight process. "He who began a good work in you," the Apostle Paul said, "Will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus." And, he says again elsewhere, God is working out His plan in our lives according to His schedule. 


So if these decisions to do right come difficult, hold fast to the knowledge that we do have a Helper to aid us in life. I'm thankful that He's there because without Him that cliff I was headed for before Christ, would be the same one I crash over today if I didn't choose, in every decision, to do the right thing.