^“and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.”

We may be coming to the end of Purdue Pharma and their decades of misrepresentation and coverup of the addictive dangers of their opioids. A couple of years ago I read Beth Macy’s book, Dopesick and got my first understanding of how the company willfully knew that they were pushing their highly addictive drugs and not releasing the non-addictive pain killers.  When reading about it, it sounded criminal and now it has been determined that it was.  The Sackler Family, who owned Purdue Pharma, have experienced the consequences of these actions and while they are far from being bankrupted personally, their reputation and standing will now be listed with others who did wrong and brought great harm to society.  With all of this, we have to wonder, where did the wrong start?  We may never know, but what we can know, is that when we see wrong occurring, at the first hint, we need to nip it in the bud or it might grow and take hold far beyond what we thought could happen.  And like wildfires, once started, are there enough resources to put them out?  Let’s always be on alert so we don’t let something wrong get out of our control.

It’s not lost on me that Judas took the initiative to betray Jesus.  He went looking for a deal for himself.  He spoke first, asking, “How much will you pay me?”.  We have to guard against our own motives, greed and selfishness.  There are always corners to cut, advantages to be gained, loopholes to be gamed and people who can be outwitted, but is that what we want to be?  If you are reading this post, I’d hope you are reading it and saying to yourself, “Whew, that’s not me.”  But, it’s in each of us and we have to guard ourselves from not making that one move or saying that one thing that could start the ball rolling in the wrong direction.  The world wants us to stumble and fail.  God wants to protect us from all of this and more.  Today, let’s remind ourselves through our prayers that we need that protection and constant correction to keep us on the right side. The right side with God.

Reference:  Matthew 26:15 (New Living Translation)