Dr Brian Weiss used a technique on his patients called hypnotic progression where he took them into their future, one of the things he discovered about the future which he writes about in his book Same Soul, Many Bodies is that the future is not fixed. The future changes all the time depending on what you are doing now, your current actions will affect the next fifteen minutes and also your next life.
It is wrong to assume we will have to pay for your sins in our next life, that’s not how it works. What you are doing right now and what you want to accomplish will affect your next life because once you have completed what you are doing you will want to try something new, or if you fail to successfully complete it you might decide to try again. It is you who control your future, not any other force.
There is no exterior power that makes sure you are punished or have to pay for your wrongdoings.
Karma pulls you towards balance, it doesn’t take control of your life, it is the realisation to fully understand something you need to see it from many different angles.