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In a sentence, this book outlines a Scripturally based method to make and execute moral decisions in your life and provides an emergency path when and if things go wrong. This book is the result of work I did with teenagers in Naples, Italy. They asked me to lead their Religious Ed program. Instead of preparing lesson plans, I asked them what their expectations were. Basically, they wanted to form a Catholic Youth Organization, raise funds and travel to religious sites in Italy. I made a deal - you form the CYO and I’ll be your mentor but that’s in addition to religious ed not in place of it. They agreed so I drilled down into their expectations on that side. Essentially, they wanted to know why, as teenagers, they needed more religious ed. They went to church and were decent kids so what else is needed. That was a challenge that wound up causing me to understand my faith better and get to the core of applying my faith to my life. So, I thought I’d work on a decision making matrix and somehow figure out how to inject faith into the fabric of that decision making process. Fortunately, I was part of an Officers Christian Fellowship group so had some great support in developing thoughts on how to proceed. They suggested I take a Concordance to add Scriptural references to add the spiritual aspect. I was fascinated by the references and results. In fact, it caused me to add a key element to the matrix, Quality Control, this turned out to be the core of my faith from that day forward. I refer to that as the Moral Trilogy. The QC consists of the Commandments - telling us what not to do; the Beatitudes - providing Christ’s guidance on living our faith; and, the WHY as expressed in I Corinthians 13. The process was that I face a situation, consider my options using Scripture as guide and I get to the point where I decide to either do what I assess is the right thing or do what I want or prefer to do. Fact is, we’re often attracted to the wrong decision. I engaged the youth in this. asking them to bring up situations, real or theoretical, and we’d go through the process. I did not expect the response. The teens got very engaged in the discussions and I got feedback from the parents - what are you doing to my kid? Whatever it is, keep it up. Within a couple months, the Protestant Chaplain asked me to take his youth group so we did. Their CYO also took off and we took trips to visit various sites in Rome and other locations. I didn’t wind up completing this book until I got involved in Veterans Suicide Prevention efforts a couple years ago. This, of course, is a devastating tragedy and that decision can be driven by a variety of factors. During one group session a VA Counselor mentioned the term Moral Injury. This occurs when you do something, are forced to do something, experience something or something is done to you which shatters your sense of ethics, value and morality. Essentially this shatters you personally and changes the way you deal with life and others. That drove me to add a chapter on Moral Injury as well as add a chapter on questions to use as reflections as you progress on your spiritual journey. To live a moral and free life we must understand God’s deep love for us and choose to accept and live in His love. Where there’s a will there’s a way BUT where there’s a will there’s a won’t. Choose The Way, the Truth and the Life.
