Many of our wounds and troubles are sadly self-inflicted.
We like to ascribe our difficulties and troubles to issues beyond our control and other people, however that is not always the case. At least at the rate we credit it. In reality, we self-generate a layer of complexity in our lives that impacts our daily well-being on a far more regular interval than most external impacts. These complications, stressors, and worries serve to steal both our joy and peace.
Call it Karma or reciprocity, but it seems our efforts to derail others too serve to accelerate similar fates in our own lives. And this sentiment is nothing new. The author of Proverbs understood this reality well and offered insight on how we ought to live:
“See that man shoveling day after day, digging, then concealing, his man-trap down that lonely stretch of road?
Go back and look again—you’ll see him in it headfirst, legs waving in the breeze.
That’s what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs.”
Life is complicated and challenging enough without additional interference. The fundamental message promulgated by Jesus seeks to help us avoid and shed these undesirable additional complications: love others. Or as we often refer to it, the golden rule. This ‘rule’ is unique in that it is far more freeing than constricting. The outcome of adherence is peace and a clean conscious, vice restlessness and unattainable justice.
Perhaps this week we can abandon our efforts to exact vengeance on our fellow man and instead choose lift him up. In doing so we might just simplify and uplift our own existence.