So They Say. Robert H. Mounce

other evening Dr. Phil reminded one of his guests, “You can’t unring a bell.” Once the clapper hits the bell, that’s it. There is no way to stop the ring. Actions inevitably have consequences. We all recognize the truth of this in our everyday world. Touch a hot stove and you burn your finger. But when it comes to the world of relationships, we tend to act as though consequentiality doesn’t exist.

      Why is that? Why do we keep doing what experience has clearly shown to produce the same unwanted result. Do we hope that next time it will be different? Perhaps 2 + 2 will = 5 . . . next time. I don’t think that’s the answer. We know that excessive speed will, in time, end up in an accident or a traffic fine. But we exceed the posted speed limit anyway.

      I think we ignore the law of cause and effect because we want so desperately to do whatever it is. Consequence doesn’t matter.

      “Go ahead and have the extra drink; don’t remind me how gruesome an accident on the road can be.

      “Pass on the bit of gossip you’ve heard; don’t make me think about integrity being undermined by passing on information damaging to another.

      “Check out the questionable picture on the internet; at the moment I don’t care about the life-destroying power of addiction. I’m going to go ahead and do it because I want to.”

      We know it will never bring any lasting satisfaction but we do it anyway. Desire dominates and we lunge forward. However, there is an alternative to failure. The bell won’t ring unless it is struck. The unwanted consequence won’t happen unless the action is taken. We understand that intellectually, but insight seems always to be trumped by desire. The missing ingredient so far is volitional — nothing less than the internal strength to say No. For the Christian, that strength is provided by the abiding presence of the Spirit. However, even then his help must be requested.