Sin and Consequences

I took care of 3 drunks yesterday. No, they weren’t 50 year old middle aged alcoholic men. They were young, and they were pretty, and they thought they were cool. Until they started puking their brains out.

The first one was barely conscious. She was at a bonfire with a bunch of other kids who decided it would be fun to drink a lot of rum. By the time she became unresponsive everyone else was too drunk to notice. Her friend who was almost as wasted somehow registered in her foggy brain that things were going south.

Alcohol levels were 175 and 243. Wow. (Legal limit is 80).

The third kid was at a different party, though the circumstances were pretty much the same. Fall bonfire. High school kids. Rum. A formula for disaster. He made it home, stumbling, to concerned parents who brought him in for help.

I could barely wake him in the ER. Alcohol level 157.

I admitted the first girl to the hospital. The mom, a well groomed woman in a ball gown whose night was interrupted by her daughter’s stupidity, wanted to know if the cops would be told.

I let the second one go home. Barely. She walked out with a big bucket in case of an accident. Her mother was seething but relieved that the police was not involved.

The third just wouldn’t wake up even though his blood alcohol level was the lowest. I don’t think he wanted to wake up. His father paced at the foot of the bed, scaring even me. When I finally decided to admit this kid, the father was visibly upset. Would the cops be notified? What would I list the admitting diagnosis as? Would the insurance pay for care of an adolescent with alcohol intoxication?

I am fascinated by the response of these parents to their children’s misbehavior. In each case, the kid could have died. In each case, a law was broken. In each case, the primary concern was whether or not the police would be involved, and whether a criminal record started.

I’m not even going to get into the fact that these kids were white rich suburbanites and may have been naturally protected from the authorities due to their status in life.

The bottom line is that not one of the parents seemed as concerned about their kid’s risky behavior as they were about the repercussions of that behavior.

Here’s what the Bible teaches about discipline for sin. In Hebrews 12:7-11, it says: “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? …For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

It’s easy to assume what God is like based on how earthly parents act. It’s easy to misunderstand God’s character because of what other people do.

Don’t be confused about it. Sin brings suffering. It’s a promise in the Word of God. And it’s because of love that He does it. According to the passage in Hebrews, God’s discipline is a sign that you are a child of His. After all, no one is expected to discipline the neighbor’s kid.

My pastor says it this way: choose to sin, choose to suffer.

God also says it this way: be sure your sins will find you out.

You can’t hide from it. You can’t escape it. But you can confess it, you can admit it, and you can change.

Do it before it’s too late.

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