It all ties in, kindasorta, so hang on.
I've yammered before about the high cost of things which actually impair or destroy a person's life, but
recent examples have brought it back to mind, and what is a blog if not the disclosure mechanism for what is on our minds?
I'm standing in line at the grocery store a couple weeks back and the guy in front of me buys two cartons
of cigarettes. One hundred and seven dollars. They were different brands, so he was probably buying one
for his wife, but still: one hundred and seven dollars.
Taxes, of course, will vary the price in different places, but even if they were free, the cost to a person's
health longterm can be huge.
"Please Drink Responsibly" is found on alcohol products. I drink responsibly. I drink coffee and tea and soda (alcoholics love to point out how bad for you soda can be) and sometimes milk. No alcohol.
But it isn't only what we ingest that can destroy our lives-any addiction can be debilitating. Gambling, for example, can empty a wallet quicker than Jack Robinson.
My house is old, like 1893 or so old. It had carpet... in the kitchen. Which is never a good idea. I tried shampooing it, to no effect, and I finally had enough and have now gotten rid of the carpet and am in the process of taking up the old linoleum that you see above.
I could only afford my house because it was a foreclosure; given the topic of this post you can infer the
reasons why.
"Feel like a winner when I'm losing again." Ol' Gord had it about right.
"So what, Doug?" you might say. "A person lives his or her own life-if they destroy it, that's nobody's business."
Sure, that would be true...if we all lived independently of one another, untouched by each other's lives,
but we are all connected. Even if I never touch alcohol, it impacts my life as it destroys the lives of those around me.
Just a guess, but I'm pretty sure that there will be no addictive destructive life destroyers in Heaven.Maybe the baseball games will by sponsored by (sugarfree) bubblegum companies. If there are still companies.
6 comments:
As per usual, I add a get the ball rolling comment even if nothing else rolls.
A couple of weeks ago at work a guy came in and said,
"There are some geese honking out there!"
I said, "Maybe they knew ya."
Are all troubles our own fault?
Lu asks:
"Are all troubles our own fault?"
to which I reply,
"Why wouldn't they be?"
"The devil made me do it" isn't a defense.
Neither is, "God made me this way-it's HIS fault!"
That lovely 'free will' which so many love to extoll the virtues of actually means that we are responsible for our own messes.
Perhaps I misunderstand the question.
Lu, do you mean "If my country devolves into chaos and I am starving, is the trouble that I am in my fault?"
No, I mean, if my oxen and donkeys and camels are stolen, my sheep burned, and my children tragically killed, is it my fault?
Sorry as I didn't check down this far for a few days.
"No, I mean, if my oxen and donkeys and camels are stolen, my sheep burned, and my children tragically killed, is it my fault?"
No 'sno' Job, Lu-it's quite simple. What is our fault is that which is sin.
What you are asking is if reason can be tied to circumstance-did all these terrible things happen as punishment from God? Am I to blame for my camels being stolen?
Not trying to blow your mind, but if we do wrong, God metes out punishment. If we do right, God metes out Praise.
Sometimes the worst scamps in history go to the grave without seemingly being punished for their sins. (Psalms 37 & 73)
Sometimes the sweetest, nicest people in the world seem to be singled out for what looks like punishment.
Take Job for example. Righteous and good, solid with God, and yet he endured such tribulations that his friends were convinced that he must have been guilty of some hidden sin.
We lack vision and wisdom enough to know if God is punishing OR rewarding someone.
Right now I have a handful of friends that are all suffering with different Cancers. I wouldn't dare suggest that any of them are being punished by God. If anything, they might make it to Heaven on the express elevator.
OK, so, if my child falls seriously ill, I lose my job for absenteeism, and with it my health insurance, my husband drops dead of a heart attack from all the stress, I lose my house because I can't pay my child's medical bills, never mind my mortgage, do I deserve all that, and should I be thrown out onto the street to starve? Paul Ryan and his ilk seem eager for the spectacle.
As you know, some of that did happen to me, but some of it didn't: my husband, who carries the family health insurance, is alive and well. Others aren't so lucky. Studies suggest that the majority of bankruptcies are caused not by laziness or riotous living but by catastrophic illness. As you so rightly point out, we judge at our peril whether any catastrophe befalling us or our neighbor is a punishment from God.
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