Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 8, 2019): Psalm
7
As a kid, I watched the “Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour.” To be
honest, I always enjoyed watching the “Wascally Wabbit” a little more than
watching the Road Runner get chased by his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. Even as a
child, maybe the exploits of the Coyote and Road Runner were a little too
predictable. The Coyote sets the trap, the Road Runner eludes the trap, often
miraculously, and then the Coyote falls into the trap that he arranged to catch
the Road Runner. Oh, and the Coyote never learns his lesson. He keeps setting
other traps only to be caught up in them after the Road Runner has slipped out
of their grasp. Mix and repeat, and you have the predictable script of the
relationship between the Road Runner and the Coyote.
But then, maybe predictability is also the point. Whenever we set
a trap for someone else, we are the ones who often fall into the trap. That
could be because the trap that we set is one that would catch us, not
necessarily the other person.
And this is the warning the Psalmist seems to want to give to his
reader. Watch out for the traps that you might set, because the reality is that
the one being trapped is you. We might call it the Road Runner- Coyote
principle. And as stupid as it might sound, if you paint a black circle on a
wall, your nemesis will run through the imaginary hole that you have made. You,
on the other hand, will run straight into the wall if you try to follow.
Maybe one of the most surprising Richard M. Nixon quotes is this
one. “Always remember, others may
hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you
destroy yourself.” Our traps and our hate only serve to destroy us. What
it is that we wish for others recoils back onto us, and violence falls on our
own heads.
Oh yeah, and the Road Runner rides again!
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 8
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