Let me start by apologizing for this post. It seems I am stuck doing long, lengthy rants that feel like me blowing off steam, more than any thing else. Next post will be a memory, via Grandma Case, I promise.
Saturday night was a wedding, after getting up at 3:00am, working twelve hours and standing in a line at Auto Zone for forty five minutes. Not a chance that I was going to be in a good mood.
Doesn't matter were you are, you can learn lessons, from the many things going on around you. On purpose, I am not going to give you any details about what happened at the wedding, because I am so tired of the innocent people getting hurt and those who cause so much pain. are rewarded. Lets just say that more than one person is perplexed at why I am no longer there friend, because of there actions towards me and my family.
I may have forgiven them (even though no request for forgiveness was made), but what confuses me, is how they don't understand the consequences of there actions.
So my family and my wifes brother's family, snuck out for Chinese food.
Dinner was wonderful.
In all aspects of live, there are consequences to actions. Man can not change that fact. And yet "the world" seems to believe that it can.
In 1998 I made a big mistake that I am willing to admit. I bought a 1992 Chevy s10 Blazer with a bad motor. My brother Steve helped me put a new motor in it, but it never reached it's full potential. That was a bad choice on my part and I lived with the consequences.
The story of the hunk of junk, mention above, doesn't end there. About a year later, this car was stolen.
Four youths were coming home from a party, when they decided that walking was beneath them. My car, seemed to be handy and is less than two minutes, they had wheels.
Then it was decided that the party didn't need to end, so they spent a couple of hours grabbing beer from grocery stores, and running out the front door. They were not worried, because if any one got a license number, they were in my car.
The next morning, after drinking and driving all night long, they went through a school zone, doing forty, in front of an officer of the law. As soon as the lights came on, it was a high speed chase, ending with my Blazer in some one's fence (I think the real reason this truck was bound for the scrap yard, was because of that high speed chase). The four youths scattered and only one was caught.
During questioning of the one youth that was caught, a lawyer had to be present. In the interest of this fourteen year old boy, all pressure was removed, to have the boy point a finger at the other three, for fear of bodily harm, in retaliation.
The full consequences of these actions, for this youth, were as followed; He was made to pay back my deductible and my time lost from work, amounting to about five hundred dollars. And he had to write me a letter of apology. Thats it. No money was ever returned to the insurance company (making every one's rates go up). The other three, were never punished in any way. The hard truth is the consequences didn't fit the crime.
With out consequences there is no remorse. The proof is in the letter of apology, that I received. Past the opening line of "I'm sorry I took your car", was a page and a half of please feel sorry for my because I had to spend a few hours at night after school, working a job (provided by the state), for six months, to pay back the five hundred dollars.
That happened about nine years ago, and that boy should be a man by now. It is obvious that there was no way for me to see how his live turned out. But I do know what happened to some of the boys I grew up with.
The consequences of your actions, good or bad, always catch up to you. The world can only delay, never remove.
Congress has just sent money (out of our pocket) to help people stay in homes, they couldn't afford in the first place. Consequences, delayed. If they couldn't afford the home then, how can they afford it now.
I could go on and on with example after example of situations were people confuse compassion with changing the consequences of ones actions, but it is like talking horsepower to a car nut. You get it, or you don't.
In my own life, I am going to take a slow, hard look at how I handle the consequences of what I do and how it effects others. Slow, because of the need to think things through. I think better when I take my time.
It's true, I love you all. Boyd
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1 comment:
As always, enjoyed this. Most of the time we forgive because not to do so rarely harms anyone but ourselves. The gospel teaches that I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all people. So interesting to look at it from the perspective that this is not another law of Moses reaction but a loving instruction because he understands what rancor develops in the person who does not. Thanks for making me think this am.
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