I’m thinking about sin. Why it’s such a bad thing. Not so much how it can manifest in my life, but why I’d want to choose not to sin in any of it’s forms.

I’m engaged in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises for the past few weeks. As part of that process, I read Luke 10.18 and 1Cor 15.21. And a striking theme emerged for me.

My sin and my righteousness both have dramatic consequences.

By my actions and my choices, according to these passages, I either establish or dethrone Satan, and I either provide a conduit for death or resurrection from the dead to come through me.

Through me. My choices in this life participate in deception and death or they proclaim (and make possible) truth, light and new life. Which puts a bit of perspective on the matter of morality and self-will – good behavior and the like.

The consequences, good and bad, of every choice that I make, have a profound effect on my world and the people I encounter and many, many more persons I may never know or encounter.