July 27, 2015
Taking Advantage
One afternoon last week my
husband, Bill, received a phone call from a young man with a Hispanic accent
who said, “Do you remember me, your grandson?” This faux grandson proceeded to say
he’d been drinking beer in a bar, got into a fight and was now in jail … and of
course needed money to get out of jail. Without missing a beat Bill played
along and told the guy he thought it would be better for him to just stay in
jail; that maybe some jail time would teach him a lesson about the perils of
drinking beer and causing problems in a bar. Bill thoroughly enjoyed making sport
of the caller; however, we know many elderly folks are falling victim to this
same scam. These scammers seem oblivious to the fact that God does not look
kindly on those who take advantage of defenseless people. “Do not take
advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I
will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill
you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless”
(Ex 22:22-24 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I like Merriam-Webster’s definition of fellowship: “2a: a community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience.” It’s definition of “community” carries on for about one-hundred fifty words or so. But the one word turning up over and over in that definition is “common”. It seems the most basic aspect of “community” is “common element“, and the most basic aspect of “fellowship” is “interaction around that element“. So it takes a community to fellowship.
-----It’s funny how the mind often serves up an image from memory for the concept of a word. When I think of “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends…” (Jn 15:13) my mind serves up an image of that airliner several years ago back East which skidded off the end of the runway, crossed a freeway, and nosed into the frozen river. “Hero” and “sacrificial” in my mind is the image of that passer-by who went jumping into that icy river helping survivors get to safety. It seems the healthy human heart has an interest in common survival.
-----I think more human hearts are healthier than they are sick, although I think all human hearts are at least some of each. But the point I’m driving at is the moral decency which grows in a healthy heart from the soil of that simple interest in survival. Matter not what brand of religion or atheism a person is, whenever interest is placed in unspecified survival, there seems to be a decency towards other people limiting some of one’s own thoughts and behaviors while generating others. But if the interest in survival is too narrowed by definition, for instance, interest in one’s own survival only, or selfless interest in a wife’s survival only, or a country’s survival only, or the survival of a certain race only, then expect evil to be hiding in the shadows somewhere near.
-----Once food, shelter, clothing, etc. have been secured for the time being, survival takes on the aspects of desires, comforts, pleasures, vanities, etc. No matter who is in need, or how far up or down the scale of relevance is their perceived need, failing to perceive the needs of everyone affected by a situation rips community, and therefore fellowship, in half. People often excuse their “crimes of desperation” thinking that, because they need it and can‘t afford it, stealing it isn’t wrong. They don’t realize the immensity of the crime. The damage they cause other people for their own gain is the smallest part of it. The damage caused to their own mind by not acknowledging and thinking about everyone’s interests is the larger part of the damage. But the largest part of the damage is the fellowship which never grows around that common interest by doing the things which nourish it into reality, like work a few extra hours for the needed or wanted money, or if such is not possible, ask politely and see what love might unfold in the community when your heart is aimed at right too.
-----But then again, not everyone gives a rip about right. Oh well, there goes the community.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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