The Pleasure of Consequences

Ever get that sinking feeling, like a pit opened in your stomach? Or a sense of dread where gravity seems to suspend as if the blood running through your veins slowed and reversed direction? We’re feeling confident, life’s flowing in a groove, and then bam, the car breaks down, we take a financial hit, the grade or review comes back poor, a boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse says they’ve had enough.

Sometimes we don’t see it coming. Sometimes we should have, but we ignored the symptoms.
Fresh out of college, I worked as a manager for a company that processed time-sensitive applications. One day, I opened one of the bottom incomplete drawers and found completed applications hidden inside. The date on the bottom had already expired, and it was a thick stack. Dread hit me like a punch to the stomach, and I remembered wanting to throw up. I couldn’t fathom how I’d missed double-checking that drawer. My mistake cost the company thousands of dollars. I had to inform my boss, then go tell the sales rep I’d lost him his commission.

It was a terrible day, but it was the last time I made that mistake. I never wanted to feel that horrific sense of dread again. As terrible as consequences may feel, the absence of consequences is actually the greater danger, because if left unchecked, we’d never learn from our mistakes.

Every consequence carries the invitation, Will you repent?

Take King David, for example. He slept with another man’s wife and was confronted about it by Nathan. A child was born, but the consequence for his sin was that the child died shortly after his birth. David faced harsh repercussions, but out of his repentance, Psalm 51 was written. “Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.” The consequences expose what can be hidden in our hearts so that we may shine a light on those dark areas and receive healing. Our repentance draws us closer to God.

Peter’s heart sank with dread when the rooster crowed. He’d told Jesus that he’d die before ever denying him, but then, as Jesus predicted, Peter denied him three times before the rooster crowed. Matthew 26:75 states, “and he [Peter] went out and wept bitterly.” Jesus visited Peter after His resurrection and asked Peter three times if he’d feed His lambs (the same number of times Peter denied Him). Jesus entrusted the same man who denied him to spread the gospel to the Jews, and Peter went on to be mightily used by God. God’s correction is meant to restore, not to reject. It’s not about being punitive regarding what happened, but about what the person does next.

And then there's the prodigal son who basically thumbed his nose at his father, took his inheritance, and went off and spent it all on wild living. Out of money and food, he got a job feeding pigs and was so hungry that he envied the slop the pigs were eating. He realized how good he had it at his father’s house and his mistake, so he went home to beg his father’s forgiveness. Pain is a good teacher. It can succeed where instruction alone may fail. Consequences can also dismantle our pride, making us humbler, steadier, and more dependent on Jesus.

We tend to fear consequences (I tend to), but what if they’re confirmation of God’s love? Psalms 3:12 says, “Lord disciplines those he loves.” His grace and mercy know no bounds. He is patient with us, wanting everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Consequences aren’t the end of our story. They’re often where God begins a deeper one with us.