The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful. The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them. The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous stands firm. (Proverbs 12:5-7)
I don’t recall when I told this story last, but it wasn’t long ago. Years ago, I was in an organization in which the leadership told you how to go about doing what you wanted to do. The idea works if you do what they tell you to. The problem is when you can’t do what they tell you to. Then we were told that even God can’t steer a parked car. I’m not going to tell you that the people who said both things are wicked in the traditional sense. They aren’t murderers, rapists, thieves, pedophiles, child abusers, animal abusers, or even drunk drivers. They aren’t even consciously malicious. The problem is, they don’t think things through sufficiently, They deal in the ideal, not in reality. At one point or another, we are al “they.”
Things from Facebook come to mind. They’re meant to help us – often to help us put things in perspective. What you are facing isn’t half as bad as what the soldier in the Mid-East, or the abused child, or the single mother on welfare, or the person with a mental illness, or the double-amputee faces on a daily basis. They’re probably right, but what they say doesn’t help you. It puts more of a burden on you because now not only do you have to face whatever you have to face, but you have to do it with a good attitude – otherwise there’s something wrong with you. The comments and posts may mean well, but they are wicked, whether they realize it or not, they’re doing harm, “drawing blood.” It ends in failure, or overthrow because the whole goal for the advice-giver is to escape unscathed, to expend as little energy as possible. They do their “good deed” of the day in telling everyone to “buck up” and be positive and don’t even realize that they leave the one they think they’re helping in the middle of the ruins of their world.
Again, I’ve talked about this before, but it also brings to mind a video I watched about showing compassion. Clothing donated to poor folks in East Africa destroyed the East African textile industry. Eggs sent to a South Asian village destroyed the careers of chicken farmers. Knee-jerk reactionary helping is often not what’s really needed. That’s why it’s often not useful to rush in to help. You need to know the details and how the details relate to one another. What the wicked does doesn’t help. Now, for those who might be tempted to say, “Yeah, like ‘you’re in our prayers’.” You may be right. You may be wrong. If you discount prayer, however, you’re not using every resource available to you. You’re not using the best resource available to you. That means you’re being wicked.
Things from Facebook come to mind. They’re meant to help us – often to help us put things in perspective. What you are facing isn’t half as bad as what the soldier in the Mid-East, or the abused child, or the single mother on welfare, or the person with a mental illness, or the double-amputee faces on a daily basis. They’re probably right, but what they say doesn’t help you. It puts more of a burden on you because now not only do you have to face whatever you have to face, but you have to do it with a good attitude – otherwise there’s something wrong with you. The comments and posts may mean well, but they are wicked, whether they realize it or not, they’re doing harm, “drawing blood.” It ends in failure, or overthrow because the whole goal for the advice-giver is to escape unscathed, to expend as little energy as possible. They do their “good deed” of the day in telling everyone to “buck up” and be positive and don’t even realize that they leave the one they think they’re helping in the middle of the ruins of their world.
Again, I’ve talked about this before, but it also brings to mind a video I watched about showing compassion. Clothing donated to poor folks in East Africa destroyed the East African textile industry. Eggs sent to a South Asian village destroyed the careers of chicken farmers. Knee-jerk reactionary helping is often not what’s really needed. That’s why it’s often not useful to rush in to help. You need to know the details and how the details relate to one another. What the wicked does doesn’t help. Now, for those who might be tempted to say, “Yeah, like ‘you’re in our prayers’.” You may be right. You may be wrong. If you discount prayer, however, you’re not using every resource available to you. You’re not using the best resource available to you. That means you’re being wicked.
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