Curse of the people who think there is a curse

March 18, 2009

Today's Reading: Deuteronomy 1-2 and Acts 28

In the Book of Acts, Paul finds himself trapped on an island with a group of prisoners. I realize that sounds like a premise to either a real bad TV show or a real good one like Lost, but something happens that he never intended.

As he is going to get firewood, a snake appears on his arm. What that snake was doing in a pile of firewood? Who knows. Apparently, it was hard to spot, Paul carried it all the way before it revealed itself. It must have been have been a real lazy snake to, because it didn’t move until it was in the fire.

It was interesting to see how the people reacted to it. They simply said: “this man must be a murderer, and now justice has come for him”. I guess none of them are thinking: “Dang, we’d better get rid of that snake.”

It reminds me of when I saw the first televised shark attack. It started out with these guys ankle deep while sharks were swimming around. They were talking about sharks, and their conversation was pretty bland because they probably knew what was going to happen. Yeah, you guess it, the shark up and bit one of them.

What disturbs me is that the footage that we see isn’t the camera man dropping the camera and helping the bitten man. Instead, he goes in for a close-up, the selfish moron! Truly, he cared more about being the cameraman who gets the first televised shark attack than someone who needs to help someone in need.

This is so true for Christians who always think that they are thinking of the future and ignore the present. Remember back in the eighties, when AIDS was spreading, and Christians said things like “oh look, God is cursing the homosexuals with a disease for their sinful actions”.

Isn’t it just terrible when godly people assume the know the plan of God? It’s like we just assume that circumstances that happen are the result of sin. It’s like we didn’t learn from the book of Job.

Is it possible that we are supposed to learn from bad circumstances, and not a lesson that we should avoid them. True, there is negative consequences to actions, but just because something bad happens, doesn’t mean that we suck. We can’t assume that for other people, so we need to cut it out.