For the second time in one semester, Jimmy has been suspended from his high school. The Principal tells Jimmy and his parents that he has only one more chance, and if he fails he will be expelled. His parents give Jimmy an ultimatum—if he doesn’t get his act together, he will be sent to a military school.

His father and mother sit down with him when they get home and ask, “What do you think of all this?” And Jimmy’s reply is, “All what?” It’s usually at this point that his father starts flipping out, but this time the father controls himself. The father calmly but sternly says, “About being expelled and having to go to a military school.” Jimmy says, “I don’t care.” Then his mother says, “How about we ask your Principal if we can visit the school that they would transfer you to.” The response: “I don’t care.” So, it’s arranged; Jimmy says nothing.

So, they go to the school. Jimmy sees how they handle things there. The students are not looking at him with friendly faces. On the way home his Mom says, “We love you, son, but only you can decide if this is your future. I’m not so sure how comfortable you would be there. Only you can prevent this.” His Father adds, “This is totally on you. You don’t have to end up at that school. You don’t have to be expelled. All your Mom and I ask is that you don’t let that happen. You decide. Time is running out. Think about it. It’s your life.”

It’s all staring Jimmy in the face. He’s going to have to change his way of thinking, change his way of living.

A young girl in her late 20’s decides to attend a July 4th cook out at the home of her friend. There is a large crowd present, all basking in the sun. Among the invited guests is a priest. He’s a friend of the family. The young girl starts telling the priest how terrible her experience was in Catholic grade school and high school. The girl half expected the priest to interrupt her and break into a huge defense of Catholic schools, but the priest chooses listen instead. Then the girl shifts to a tirade about her parents and how they should have insisted that she attend a better college than the one she did. The education she received there wasn’t that great as far as she was concerned.

It seems to the priest that the girl is only looking to argue and blame everyone else for something that is causing great frustration and anger within herself. She decides that her parents and her teachers, and everyone else have problems—that all the bad things that happened to her were their fault. And when this young girl made the decision that it was everyone else’s fault, she took her life down the wrong path. She lost the ability to listen to common sense.

In everyone’s life, there is a time when the right decision must be made. And if we end up making the wrong decision, than it is time to turn to God and ask him to enter your life and help you get back on the right path. Believe it or not, stubbornness can sometimes be a sin.

But if we want, we can appeal to the Holy Spirit and God will have compassion on us and help us to get back on the right track. However, it will mean that we are going to be in for a change. But by that time, we are ready to let God change us. So that means we will have to reform ourselves.

However, if we miss this chance, we will end up walking away from God and we will be lost. St Paul says, “time is running out.”