Have you ever used the phrase “The sins of my past…” to talk about something you are going through right now?  I know I have. The most recent use of the phrase was in regard to my past sun worshiping days, when sunscreen was either not used, or not used appropriately.  Other times I have used it in regard to my sense of hearing not being as good as it once was. I said something to the effect of “the sin of my past love for loud music is coming back to haunt me.”  I have friends who have used similar phrases in regard to their past drinking, shopping, eating, or inactivity. In my husband’s case, it was his past sports and weightlifting that came back to haunt his joints. 

The past activities might not really be sinful, but it’s an easy phrase to understand, where the listener nods their head in agreement, as they are reminded of their own “sins of the past”.  Decisions we make always have an effect on us, either immediately, or down the road.  Isaac Newton was right when he said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Think about it: if you are standing on a skateboard and you throw a basketball forward (I’m not sure why you would do it but just play along) you will start to roll the opposite direction from where the ball is going.  There is an action: throwing the ball, and an equal and opposite reaction: the skateboard rolling away. Our decisions always result in an action and a reaction.  The reaction, or consequences, may be evident at the moment while other consequences may take time to surface.

Sometimes the effects are good, like when you decide to get into a workout routine. When you start the routine, you may immediately feel a sense of accomplishment because you started something positive.  In the short term, you start to feel more energetic, and you notice that your clothes feel better, which gives you confidence and motivation to continue.  The long-term consequence may not be evident for many years such as staving off heart disease. In fact, you may never know that your exercise routine prevented a heart attack at all. When you go to your routine check-up at age 60 or 70, your doctor may comment on how good your blood pressure is and attribute it to your active lifestyle; that may be when you realize that your choice to stay active had a positive long-term effect on you.  The action: the commencement of the workout routine. Working out can be hard, it requires effort, grit, sweat, and endurance. The reaction: the muscles break down and rebuild, the fat cells burn, the circulatory system gets stronger and stops heart disease.

Other decisions result in not-so-good consequences. Consider the person who throws caution to the wind in their youth and thinks they will always look good, feel good, and move without issue. This person may choose to eat whatever they want, drink as many alcohol drinks as they want, never work out, and have an unhealthy sleep pattern. When the body is young, it can compensate for this lifestyle. As the body ages, metabolism slows down, cell turnover occurs less rapidly, the brain doesn’t recover from lack of sleep as well as it used to, and the liver doesn’t get rid of toxins as efficiently as it once did. This person may feel the effects of their unhealthy lifestyle right away through sluggishness, ill-fitting clothes, irritability, and lack of concentration. They will also start to feel the effects of their actions more as they age.  It will cause a long-term reaction in their weight, their flexibility, their skin elasticity, their ability to recall information, and may even experience heart disease, liver disease, type 2 diabetes, or cancer.  Sure, these things can happen to people who have healthy lifestyles too. Afterall, the body can’t live forever. The chances of disease, however, are greater for those who are not healthy. The action: choosing to be carefree and not put effort into their health. The reaction: an unhealthy body which doesn’t fight off disease efficiently.

Everything we do, or don’t do, will come back to reward us or haunt us. Take my lack of sunscreen use. I used to love being out in the sun, playing on the beach during vacations, walking or running on a sunny day. You name it, if it was sunny, my skin was soaking up the rays. The action: a total disregard for my very pale skin that lacks melanin.  The reaction: multiple basal cells removed, actinic keratoses burned off, and Mohs surgery. Currently, I am using a topical cream called Fluororacil which is used to slow or stop rapidly dividing cells on the skin so as to either stop them from becoming cancer cells or to slow them down dramatically.  It turns my skin bright red and causes it to flake off. Now, this isn’t a terminal situation by any means, but it is costly, inconvenient, and uncomfortable, not to mention the unsightliness.  If only I had chosen to use sunscreen and been more diligent, I might not have to proceed with this, but I look at it with a sprinkle of humor and a dash of experience.  I joke about it when I use the topical cream thinking “if only I hadn’t disregarded the thick, white layer of sunscreen and clumpy, oversized hat.” Once the redness, swelling, and flaking of the skin have subsided, however, fresh new skin emerges that is smooth and spot free. This is the second chance I have at taking care of my skin.

Every decision we make has an eternal consequence whether it seems like it or not. I’ve made some really bad decisions in my life, and I’ve made some fairly good ones. The best decision I have ever made is to put my faith in Jesus. When we choose to have faith in him, we are given a fresh start every day. We wake up new and unblemished each morning. When we say yes to him, we take the dead, flaky, crusty, sinful junk of our past and toss it aside. He is our healer, refresher, cleanser, and savior. Even though we are human, and we will make mistakes, we get to choose each day to whom we will give our hearts. The immediate effect is the knowledge that he will never leave us or forsake us. The long-term effect is everlasting life.  The action: accepting him into your life without overthinking it or waiting to feel ready, choosing to live life with the long-term in focus rather than the here and now, and ridding yourself of pride and self-indulgence. The reaction: a fresh new start, knowing that you will have eternal life where there is more beauty than you can ever imagine.