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The Len Bias Effect



   When I was young, we had many anti-drug campaigns in our schools. If you ever had to set thru one of them you probably heard about Len Bias.  Len Bias was an All-American forward at the University of Maryland that was drafted by the Boston Celtics as the second overall pick in the 1986 NBA Draft.  Two days after the draft, Bias went to a party to celebrate with some friend, where supposedly he used cocaine for the first time.  He died that night from cardiac arrhythmia induced by a cocaine overdose.  Bias was the poster case for why you should never try drugs. Just one time could kill you, don’t end up like Len Bias.

   As strong of an illustration as it was, it seemed to me to have the very different effect than what was intended.  While the message was true (One time can kill you), it wasn’t the norm.  Kids that did end up trying drug and immediately didn’t fall over dead then began to look at all the anti-drug information they had received as bogus.  They saw no immediate negative and kept on.  The truth for most people isn’t one time gets you but the one time leads to a downward spiral of ruin.  Thinking they had escaped the danger, they dismiss the knowledge that could have kept them from the very real danger of drug use.

   In 2nd Peter 3:3-6 we see Peter make a similar conclusion:

“Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water”.

  People have a bad tendency to think just because punishment does not come immediately, there will be no punishment. God didn’t strike me down instantly so it must be O.K.  That isn’t how God works.  In the next few verses we read, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2nd Peter 3:9).


  Don’t fell victim to the Len Bias effect.  Sin will corrupt and destroy everything it touches.  It may take a little while but the result are always the same.  Don’t think that God is good with your actions because nothing bad has happened to you.  God will punish evil!  Don’t mistake God’s patience as acceptance of your of your sin but see that he giving you a chance to repent (Romans 2:4-6).  Don’t waste the chance! 
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