Tiny Devotional for Tuesday, 05-18-2021

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, toasted bagels.

When a wicked person comes, contempt also comes,
And with dishonor comes taunting.
Proverb 18:3, NASV

I’m struggling with this verse. Maybe that’s because I have encountered very few wicked people in my life; at least, since I stopped having to ride the bus to school. That’s the last time I can recall active engagement with truly wicked behavior, at the hands of a bully on a school bus. 

I got brushed, mildly, with some awful-acting people in the first few months I was in training in the Army, but the rather rigorous supervision we were under prevented the worst kind of acting out.

In my adult life, I’ve caught a lot more grief from incompetent people than from wicked people. Narrow-minded stupidity, actively applied, causes a lot more damage than the fictional super-villain with a plan to conquer the world. And, over the long term, a healthy institution disposes of active stupidity; they get kicked off the bus.

Wickedness, contempt, dishonor, and taunting all speak to me of a lack of discipline. The one who seems to live to cause havoc is NOT devoting time and other resources to building a future. NONE of those things produce any kind of good fruit.

Social media has the reputation for being a hotbed of wicked behavior. It takes very little effort to be a keyboard warrior, and I’ve had enough rudeness spilled on me to recognize that aggression seems to be the rule in some places. So, I don’t ride THAT bus anymore, either. As Morris Baxter says on WCLK, “Hurt people hurt people, but blessed people bless people.”


Peace be on your household.


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