Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to one who searches for it. (Proverbs 11:27)
As a writer, I’ve been given advice about villains. One of the bits of advice is to have the villain want the same thing that the hero does but goes about getting it in a way that brings him into contention with the hero. Alternatively, he might seek it in a way that the reader does not approve. Another is that a villain sees himself as the hero of the story. We all seek. The problems are in what we seek for, what we’re willing to do to get it, and why we seek it.
Some friends have posted stuff about the current administration taking away the peoples’ rights. They believe everyone should be allowed to live as they want. I happen to agree. People should be permitted to live as they see fit, within reason. I won’t go so far as to say that pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, or serial killed should be permitted to live as they see fit, killing, raping, terrorizing, or abusing. I don’t know of anyone who goes that far – yet. The problem, of course, is when two worldviews both want to be included in the living as they see fit, but those worldviews see the other as being in the exceptions category along with the pedophiles, et. al. My friends cannot see how it could possibly be that my letting someone else live as they see fit might prevent me from living as I see fit. Instantly, you have hero and villain, and which is in the eye of the beholder. Of course, the real question is how each looks from God’s perspective.
The point of today’s passage is that you get what you look for. I’ve quote C.S. Lewis rather recently about his idea that we are all moving toward and away from becoming either something good, or something found, if at all, in one’s worst nightmares. It’s really the same idea. We find what we seek, we become what we choose, even if sometimes that we seek or choose is not what we think we’re seeking or choosing.
I ran into this with by brother many years ago. He moved back home. I was already there but didn’t have a say in his presence. My parents established rules included no alcohol or drugs, and smoking permitted only in the garage, but they were snowbirds and moved south for the winter. His frequent complaint was that if they would just let him live his own life, he wouldn’t feel the need to flaunt their rules. He said the same thing about the Navy, the airline we traveled on together to visit my parents one winter, and about everyone who didn’t let him live as he wanted to.
Of course, I had an active life, work, church, voice lessons, I don't recall what all I was doing at the time. I wanted to be allowed to live my life the way I wanted to, too – and that included vocaleses (and we’re not talking low volume mumbles) as I was getting ready for work in the morning. I’m pretty sure my neighbors were happy when I stopped taking singing lessons. Our lifestyles could not have been more different. For him to be free would have meant a house full of smoke, beer, rock music, and possibly drugs. For me to be free would have meant a house devoid of all of those things. Since we were both occupying the same space, and both seeking to live as we saw fit – and both seeing ourselves as the hero – who do you declare to be the villain who must give up his or her rights?
Our society seems to think that what us good is what lets us each do what we want when we want, where we want, with whom we want and how we want as long as we don’t think we’re harming anyone. That’s the world they seek. But what happens when their wants don’t line up with someone else’s? What happens when their wants don’t line up with God’s? Then who is the villain?
Some friends have posted stuff about the current administration taking away the peoples’ rights. They believe everyone should be allowed to live as they want. I happen to agree. People should be permitted to live as they see fit, within reason. I won’t go so far as to say that pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, or serial killed should be permitted to live as they see fit, killing, raping, terrorizing, or abusing. I don’t know of anyone who goes that far – yet. The problem, of course, is when two worldviews both want to be included in the living as they see fit, but those worldviews see the other as being in the exceptions category along with the pedophiles, et. al. My friends cannot see how it could possibly be that my letting someone else live as they see fit might prevent me from living as I see fit. Instantly, you have hero and villain, and which is in the eye of the beholder. Of course, the real question is how each looks from God’s perspective.
The point of today’s passage is that you get what you look for. I’ve quote C.S. Lewis rather recently about his idea that we are all moving toward and away from becoming either something good, or something found, if at all, in one’s worst nightmares. It’s really the same idea. We find what we seek, we become what we choose, even if sometimes that we seek or choose is not what we think we’re seeking or choosing.
I ran into this with by brother many years ago. He moved back home. I was already there but didn’t have a say in his presence. My parents established rules included no alcohol or drugs, and smoking permitted only in the garage, but they were snowbirds and moved south for the winter. His frequent complaint was that if they would just let him live his own life, he wouldn’t feel the need to flaunt their rules. He said the same thing about the Navy, the airline we traveled on together to visit my parents one winter, and about everyone who didn’t let him live as he wanted to.
Of course, I had an active life, work, church, voice lessons, I don't recall what all I was doing at the time. I wanted to be allowed to live my life the way I wanted to, too – and that included vocaleses (and we’re not talking low volume mumbles) as I was getting ready for work in the morning. I’m pretty sure my neighbors were happy when I stopped taking singing lessons. Our lifestyles could not have been more different. For him to be free would have meant a house full of smoke, beer, rock music, and possibly drugs. For me to be free would have meant a house devoid of all of those things. Since we were both occupying the same space, and both seeking to live as we saw fit – and both seeing ourselves as the hero – who do you declare to be the villain who must give up his or her rights?
Our society seems to think that what us good is what lets us each do what we want when we want, where we want, with whom we want and how we want as long as we don’t think we’re harming anyone. That’s the world they seek. But what happens when their wants don’t line up with someone else’s? What happens when their wants don’t line up with God’s? Then who is the villain?
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