The Way Out

It is hopeful to assume that good people will largely stay out of trouble and that bad people will get their just desserts, but there are plenty of skeptics who say “Dream on bro. No good deed goes unpunished and the good die young.”

So I am surprised that, while my coffee is brewing, this morning’s Bible wisdom agrees with them, sort of:

“The upright man is taken out of trouble, and in his place comes the sinner.” Proverbs 11:8 (BBE)

I like these “Wisdom Scriptures.”

Rather than buy into the left-wing thought that wants to divide us over being “privileged” or not, Solomon just asks if we want to be wise, as in being able to take advice, or do we want to remain the natural born fools we started out as. This idea is not only useful, it is a more truthful view of life and it gives me things to do to make my life better, right now.

Per this verse, good people, and those of us who are trying to be good, still get into trouble, but then get out. Bad people take that place. A wise person sees this second step of a two step process while the rest of us may only see the first.

When I get into trouble and it is not my fault this time, I need to be aware that part of me wants an excuse to do unwise things. It is human nature to fear that simple virtue doesn’t take me very far. Short-termers in the land of doing right don’t get what the long-term residents figure out. Being just, being fair, telling the truth, takes time before they give us a way out of our troubles and into the life we want.

The Christian idea of grace helps in this regard. It tells me that God forgives sins and will then empower me to be a just person if I ask Him to (as well as letting me go to Heaven some day).

There is no getting around the fact that His idea of the goodness I should aspire to is higher than mine, but that is part of the deal.