Good Friday: Bariatric Surgery, Government Bailouts, and the Pro-Choice Movement...

Yesterday, we were driving back from a gymnastics area on the East side of the state. Somewhere along I-96 I noticed a billboard picturing several balloons floating into the sky, each with a different number on it. I can't remember the exact slogan, but the idea was "You can take off a bunch of weight RIGHT NOW!" It was an advertisement for one of the "miracle" weight loss surgeries that are now available at the Operating Room nearest you.

Frankly, the whole idea is disturbing to me.

I need to be careful here because I don't want to needlessly offend someone, so up front I'll say that I know weight issues are different for every person. There are many people who valiantly battle their gene pool for their entire life but never find their way to the weight goal they'd like. I also will acknowledge that I'm not necessarily in the best shape of my life. It wouldn't hurt me to shed a few pounds. But that's kind of the point I'm working toward. I'm fully aware of what happened to my once fit figure. Over time, I worked out too little, sat around too much, and ate the wrong kind of foods too many times. It's been fun, but it's cost me.

Here's what else I know. I can get back to where I was. However, I didn't get here overnight and I won't be able to get back to where I was overnight either. The amount of time it took me to do this to my body will likely be required to undo it. Perhaps it will take even longer, and the sad truth is that it will require more discipline, harder work, and increased pain. But...that's what we call consequences! I'm disturbed by the idea that we're selling surgical procedures designed to simply bypass the consequences of an undisciplined, sedentary life (see, here's where I again note that I'm not talking about EVERYONE, but let's be honest, I'm talking about a lot of people... you know who you are, Muskegon!). The reality is that a high percentage of people will have a surgical procedure that allows them to bypass the hard work and discipline required to get back in shape, and having not gained those skills they will repeat the same behavior that got them there in the first place.

A similar "consequence-less" approach seems to be all the rage in the financial sector of our country. From the government bailout money given to those with faulty business models and decision-making processes to the easy personal bankruptcies of those who ran up bills they couldn't pay; it seems that living the high life without paying for it, has become the functional modus operandi of our culture. It's really the same as the weight loss billboard, "feel free to abandon all discipline and run up ridiculous debt levels. you won't really have to ever pay for it!"

Can I suggest the exact same principle lies behind the abortion debate in our country? "Right to choose" is really just a right to choose to not have consequences. (As with weight-issues and debt, not every case is the same, but generally what I'm saying here is true) Pregnancy can be avoided. Women (and their male counterparts) can choose to not be pregnant, and it really has nothing to do with abortion. It has to do with thinking ahead ans asking the question, "Am I willing to deal with the potential consequences of this decision?"

In fact, the same question could be asked before I eat a twinkie.
The same question could be asked before I use my credit card.
The same question could be asked before some wall-street yahoo makes a speculative leap.

"Am I willing to deal with the consequences of this decision?"

Sadly, this question (and the personal discipline it represents) has been rendered impotent by our consequence-free society. We can all eat what we want and grow as large as we want, because we can have an operation to remove the consequences. We can spend whatever we want and live WAAAAY beyond our means because we can just default and the government will remove our consequences. We can enjoy "knowing one another" as often as we like, because a doctor can easily execute the consequences.

As I said at the top, the whole idea is disturbing to me.

I'm particularly disturbed because I think this same attitude toward consequences has really misinformed people's attitude toward a dirty little word we call "sin". Sin is no longer thought of as that bad a thing, or is a word reserved only as descriptive of the REALLY bad things that only the REALLY bad people do. Since we no longer suffer consequences in much of our lives, the idea that violating God's will has severe consequences is kind of archaic and closed-minded.

But this time of year, I do a lot of thinking about the consequences of sin. Because this week we'll celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus, an event Mel Gibson forced most of us to think a little differently about. It wasn't some heartening, dramatic event that inspires us to live life a little bit better. It was a pretty awful happening on a pretty awful day. For the most part, the reality of what happened that day is unspeakable.

That... is the consequence of sin. It's real, it's painful, and it's my fault. No surgery, no bailout, no "procedure" can remove the guilt of what I've done to God's creation, and more specifically to God's Son.

More later.