A 24-year-old Clermont, Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the fatal shooting of Jose Manuel Santos in 2012.

Pictured here is Alex Baez in the courtroom as he learns his fate which will cause him to ponder the following for the rest of his life.

Admit it. Obedience has never been big on your “to do” list. We have all at some time or another played fast and loose with the rules.

However, Ebola may be causing you to rethink that attitude.

As you see frightening images of men and women covered from head to toe and parading about in Hazmat suits.

When you hear television commentators and doctors discuss rigid observance of protocols in matters related to the handling of the disease.

As you witness people undergoing painful deaths bleeding from every orifice before finally succumbing to the ailment.

As travel restrictions to and from West Africa increasingly sound like a good idea. 

As you come into agreement with quarantining people for 21 days who have had contact with diseased people.

Suddenly you appreciate the significance of obedience.

When your life and wellbeing is imminently threatened, you quickly hold obedience in high regard. Immediately strict adherence to the rules becomes a priority.

Yet the reason why the world is in such a mess is because man is and has been inherently casual and careless with the laws of nature, society or of God.

A wholesome organization, society or civilization can never function properly without everyone following the rules which have been deemed just, legal and right for all members of said society or civilization.

Everyone doing his or her thing, his or her way, according to his or her own standards is a recipe for disaster, anarchy or chaos.

However, the heart and natural inclination of man seem drawn to lawlessness. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary and that it is a bad idea, we insist on choosing the wrong path or option.

Our ancestors chose not to obey an all wise and loving God so the consequence was expulsion from the Garden of Eden, disconnection from our Maker, being relegated to coaxing nourishment from a cursed ground, the woman being subjected to the whims of her husband and having to undergo childbirth in pain and sorrow.

You disdained education opting to become the class clown and discovered how difficult it is to land a job without the GED which you have yet to pass.

After much struggle, you finally obtained an entry level position at minimum wage. Yet, you flaunted the employee hand book so now you are back in the unemployment line longing and searching for even a job at “Mickey D’s.”

You did not obey your parents, principal, pastor or the policeman so you find yourself in a 8’ by 12’ box being supervised by a 6-foot, 300-pound “manster”/attitude adjuster” euphemistically called a corrections officer. To your dismay he has no sense of humor,does not abide your rugged individualism, brook no violation of the rules for if committed brings a punishment which is severe, harsh and unpleasant.

You did not obey the rules of marriage so you find yourself an unsatisfied divorcee on your third or fourth marriage which itself is in dire straits or like Magic Johnson afflicted with the AIDS virus.

I understand the right motive of mass civil disobedience movements of Gandhi, Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr. They were protests of unjust laws instituted for one segment of society. That is not my focus here.

The problem with mankind is that human beings have ignored, disregarded or skirted laws which are beneficial for the safety, security and wellbeing of everyone. The Ten Commandments are a prime example. Drunk driving is another. Consider the horrendous long lasting effects of drug, child or spousal abuse.

We have wrongly equated obedience with satisfaction or happiness.  To our detriment, we have decided if a rule is inconvenient or makes us uncomfortable, it is okay to disobey it. If God, your mother or teacher, who all have your best interests at heart, give you a command, it does not matter how you feel or think, if it is convenient or whether you like it or not, just do it.

You do not always get to do what you want to do, oftentimes you must do what you need to do despite being less than joyful about it. How about those long, tedious, disagreeable security measures for airplane travel?  I’d much rather the inconvenience of those than the violent hijacker 5000 feet in the air.

Being an obstinate outlaw in your youth can be the harbinger of serious consequences in adulthood.

You must discipline yourself to accept that obedience is not automatically synonymous with happiness.

However, disobedience always eventually leads to unhappiness.

You now watch with regret as your one sorry effort with this precious thing called life flashes by your face. You observe with your own eyes the reward of the wicked.

Whilst you languish in a prison cell for thirty years surrounded by people who do not care a whit if you live or die,

or

Lie bleeding on the floor felled by the bullet from the gun of the homeowner who adamantly refused to be victimized one more time,

or

Stricken with Aids on a stark hospital bed - a skeleton of your former self -because you steadfastly insisted on unprotected sex with your homosexual partner,

 or

Your lungs, kidneys and liver punctured and lacerated from the violent knife wounds of the enraged husband who discovered you in bed with his wife at his house, no less.

You remember the Sunday School  lessons of so long ago.

“So, put to death the sinful earthly desires lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. For it is because of these that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.”  - Colossians 3:6.

Tears of remorse well up in your  eyes as you say to yourself,  “if I had a second chance to do it over again, I would pay keen attention to the instructions given to Joshua at the outset of his victorious life.”

“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.” – Joshua 1:8

Alas! The way of the transgressor is so hard.

Why didn’t I just obey?