Saturday, April 12, 2014

Comeuppances. And other warnings.

"whatever a man sows..."
Galatians 6:7

I had an interesting collision of ideas today.  One was a quote from C.S. Lewis.  The other was a Bible verse.  Together they illuminated one another, and gave me a somewhat unpleasant insight.

The Bible verse was from Proverbs 1.  Verse 10 says, "My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent."  Then there are a few verses underscoring that directive, and giving a few examples.  Then in verses 18 and 19, there's the "why" part of the statement:  "(Sinners) 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." {emphasis mine}

So, the idea is sort of along the lines of, "you bring your own destruction on yourself," right?

Then there was the quote from C.S. Lewis... "There are only two kinds of people in the end:  those who say to God, 'Thy will be done'; and those to whom God will say, 'thy will be done.'"  Kinda the same idea, isn't it?

Sort of "name it and claim it," but in a punitive way.

When I was a kid, I used to love reading books by Beverly Cleary.  One of her characters was a boy named Otis Spofford, who was a troublemaker in class.  In one book, he continually shot spitballs at the girls in class, until his teacher told him if she caught him again, he'd get his "comeuppance".  He was worried, but intrigued at the same time.  What could that mean??

Well, his curiosity won out.  He shot another spitball.  And his punishment was to sit on a stool in the back of the classroom, and shoot spitballs into a trashcan.  Over and over and over, until he couldn't stand it anymore.  His crime became his punishment.

It's a sobering warning.  Be careful of what you love.  And be very careful of what you love more than you love the Lord.

~ "even as they did not like to retain God 
in their knowledge,
God gave them over to their corrupted minds" ~
Romans 1:28
~

No comments:

Post a Comment