Play now, Pay later

In this articlea man waits anxiously for 15 minutes to find out if he is HIV positive. He is understandably nervous. I took particular note of this line in the article. "He admits that he now realizes that 30 minutes of pleasure suddenly seems heavier. One of those 30 minutes of pleasure could change the rest of his life." I am glad that this man turned out not to have HIV, but I find it interesting that this was not his first test. "This is Weatherington's third test and, hopefully, third negative result. His last test was seven months ago." So he went through this two other times and each time, after being relieved, went back and still did the same thing that could endanger his life again. Those must some pretty intense 30 minutes of pleasure to be willing to risk the rest of your life and the suffering that can result of developing full blown AIDS. Isn't that just the way with us as humans so often. We know their will be consequences to our actions, but the short term gain seems so real and the long-term pain seems so far away. I think the place where this is most true is our view of eternity. That's going to be a long term thing, and yet so many ignore getting ready for eternity, more interested in doing now what they want. Even Christians who truly know Christ will often sacrifice the rewards of the future and the chance to reach friends for eternity, more interested in living for a few moments of pleasure today.