The road of life is full of choices. Choices that are followed by other choices and a multitude of paths.

The challenge of much of modern life is that many people don't see the consequences of their choices. There is some good in that - there is grace to make mistakes without facing the impending death or starvation. On the other hand without consequences, we never learn and bound to make the same mistakes.

It's a tough line to toe, but eventually all decisions have their resolution.

The beauty of grace and salvation is that as Christian, the ultimate consequence is paid for. The price we can't pay for, somebody else covered. Jesus pays the bill of our life and give us the freedom of our life. That freedom however, is to live not the way we used to, not the way that cause death.

The tragedy of cheap grace is when Christians ramp up the tab, knowing that it's paid for. "Shall we go on sinning that grace might increase?" By no means. The result of those living however they like, knowing that the bill is paid is that those will live a life that has no faith. "Show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith from my works." It's a tragedy because those who live this life are self-deceiving themselves. The point of freedom from death is not to live however we want, but to bring other out of the shadow of death. How on earth will that happen when there is no difference in lifestyle? How can share the good news of repentance of sins when sins abound and everybody is chill about it?

As a people that are working towards the restoration of all things, we should tackle the things that bring desolation and disease. There will be no tear in heaven but while were here we should challenge the things that can be changed. This involves understanding where problems come from and reverse engineering the process to tackle the source of the problem.

Freedom comes with a responsibility of owning the outcome. This requires preparation, study and discipline. The rigor of the process is not talked about as much. One has to balance the budget to be able to spend. Being thrifty and frugal give the option to be generous later down the road. Working hard and putting in the extra hours builds the skills to be productive, to manage more in the future. Without seeing the outcome and working towards it, is hard to build the lifestyle and discipline in the here and now.

We look at other who have achieved many things with their lives and we tend to envy their luck. Sometimes it is luck, but most often than not, a lot of hard work work and years of preparation are at play as well. We don't see that, but we see the results, The wise learn and invest ahead of time.

Good investments and bad bets are all part of the wheel of life. As we mature and take on more responsibility our decisions get more complex - and that's a good thing. Being caretakes of creation is not an easy task, but it's do-able. Learning from our mistakes, experimenting and building towards a better future would be unachievable without consequnces and the freedom to make choices with real impact.

Consequence are necessary and good. Learning from our choices we learn how to make better choices.