Decisions...

Love him or hate him, Neal Boortz is an intelligent and provocative talk show host. This morning he said something that really resonated with me.

First, a little back story. Neal is profoundly anti-smoking. He believes smokers are fools, and periodically takes off on a rant to that effect.

This morning, a smoker called in to take Neal to task, pointing out that the American people have a constitutional to be fools, and that he should lighten up on smokers. During this exchange, the man admitted he would wishes he weren't a smoker, and Neal jumped on that statement, and there is where he said the thing that caught my imagination.

"Are you smoking right now?"

"No," the man answered.

"Then you are a former smoker – you have stopped smoking. Ten minutes, ten days, ten years... you are a former smoker. If you really want to stop, stop! The only question is – will you start smoking again?"

Wow. Just like all of us, just like all of our damaging habits and habitual sins. If we aren't doing it right this moment, we are a former (fill in the blank). The only question is, when decision time rolls around, maybe in ten minutes, ten hours, ten months, ten years... will we make a better choice than we did the last time.