First it was a business owner from my hometown. Unbeknownst to his family he had been stealing from his customers. For a long time. Now my hometown is small...and I mean small!...so this is a shock to the community. How could one of our own steal from his neighbors? And by neighbors I literally mean the people living next door, not the holistic "neighbor" meaning humanity.
Next it was a co-worker who stole money from the company I work for. Someone I would not have expected, someone I worked closely with. Someone in a position of trust. Certainly someone I was shocked to find out was gone in such an abrupt and scandelous manner.
This year I want to work through the book of Proverbs and look at what it says about wisdom and finances. I know it's been done before by others but I want the exercise of thinking through how the wisdom of the ages is meshed with my life today and my journey to financial freedom.
So I opened up my biblegateway.com screen and lo and behold the first book is talking about what I feel surrounded by...ill-gotten gain. I like the "old-fashionedness" of that phrase too. Proverbs 1:19 says, "19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it" (TNIV). And it does!
Motivation is a funny thing. The folks in this passage chose to go along with the bad choices of others. Others decide on their own to steal or harm. And I wonder if there is any situation in life I would be willing to "go after ill-gotten gain." Would I steal food to feed my family? I can't imagine any other scenario that would make me risk my life to get something in such a way. In the end I think this verse reminds me that no matter the motivation for the action, the consequences are never good.
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