Acting Badly
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit; we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse”— My son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path; For their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird; but they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its owners. – Proverbs 1:10-19.
We often talk about when bad things happen to good people, however, have you noticed how often bad things happen to those who are involved in what they should not be involved in? Here is an example: Christina Goodenow had just won one million dollars in the lottery with a one-dollar ticket when she was arrested. She was arrested because she had a stolen credit card, and she used that credit card to buy the lottery ticket. Sadly, for Christina, the ticket was then voided because it was bought with a stolen credit card.
Here’s two more examples: Things really deteriorated for Sonja Aguirre after she parked in a handicapped parking space (She is not handicapped.). While giving Sonja a ticket an officer discovered that Sonja also had 265 pounds of marijuana in her vehicle with an estimated value of half a million dollars. A similar situation occurred with two men who were driving a vehicle with an expired license plate. Only when they were stopped in Orlando, Florida for the expired plate they had 550 pounds of marijuana in their vehicle.
I do not have any surveys to back up what I am going to say, however, I think that it is true from my own observations. If you want to raise the probability of something bad happening in your life begin to do things, you know you should not do on a regular basis. Such as: park in handicapped parking spaces without a permit or drive your car around with an expired license tag or buy that lottery ticket with a stolen credit card – and then, see what happens. What are you doing when you willfully engage in what you know to be wrong? Solomon tells us in Proverbs that, “…they lie in wait for their own blood, they lurk secretly for their own lives.”
Yes, bad things do happen to good people. However, if you want to get on the fast track to bad things happening to you just begin to do those things you know you should not do. That will surely speed up the process of bringing those bad things about in your life.
On the other hand, I believe that Solomon is telling us that we can avoid much evil in our lives by simply doing what is right. When bad things happen to people acting badly it may very well be the result of their bad actions. Solomon would say to you today just what he said so many years ago when his words were originally written down, “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”
(You can avoid many of the bad things in life by doing what you know to be right.)