Fire Drill

Last week there was a fire drill at work. The alarm came on suddenly and everyone had to hurry outside to practice for a dangerous event. It got me thinking about the things that more commonly present danger in our lives, but which are not sudden and that have no alarm – small but consistent lapses of integrity, unhealthy habits that we practice day in and day out, repeatedly allowing ourselves to do less when we know we are capable of more. These things present great danger in our lives. Grand moral failure happens through a series of bad choices. Heart disease, lung cancer, and obesity develop over years, not overnight. Our potential remains just a vague vision on the horizon because the easy choice of mediocrity is so inviting. For these things there is no alarm, but the danger is just as real as a fire. May we learn to see the danger in the non-urgent.