temptation

Seventh Grade.  Hormones stirring.  Adults who had never met you began to have prejudical ideas about you, assuming that all young teens were rebellious.

"Up to this point, you've been spoon-fed on milk."  Mr. David Eggers began.  We were all wondering "Now what did we do?"

He continued.  "You've been sheltered here in a parochial school, and haven't been prepared for the realities of the world."  

"You've all heard about temptation.  But do you know how it really works?  Of course, if the Devil came up to you, and asked you to hold up a bank, most of you wouldn't do that.  But temptation doesn't work like that.  It's not usually that obvious. Here's how temptation really works:"

Mr. Eggers went on to relate a story about coming home from the school late one night (that was about 10 pm back in those days).  Downtown was deserted, and then he spotted his old school friend Arnie, who was now a night watchman, making the rounds.  Arnie worked for the Merchant Police, an organization hired by downtown businesses during the hours that the businesses were closed.  He got out of the car, and walked awhile with Arnie.  They came to a filling station.  Arnie was in charge of re-stocking the soda machine.  Using his key, he opened up the door of the machine, restocked it, then selected a Coke for himself, and one for his old high school chum, Mr. Eggers. 

Mr. Eggers, seeing that nobody was paying for this Coke, that it was "on the house" as it were, (wink, wink), and he hesitated.  "Come on, Dave, have a soda"  Arnie held out the bottle.  Mr. Eggers shook his head. "No, we really shouldn't - it's not...." Arnie forced it into Dave's hand.  

An embarrassed pause.  Mr. Eggers resumed, in a menacing soft voice that always scared me when he used it: "How many of you would have done the right thing, let that bottle fall to the ground, and turned around to run from ... temptation? Regardless of what your friend says to you?  Because THAT's temptation, and no matter how insignificant the amount seems to you, stealing is stealing."

Although I have had lots of disagreements with church doctrines and dogmas since the day I started reading the Bible for myself, I believe that in this world there are not quite as many "gray areas" of uncertainty as people say. Every day one meets "complicated" people who, by insisting that they live "in shades of gray". are merely attempting to avoid accountability for their own actions. 

In this season of light, let the light shine!

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