Proverbs 1:18

"And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives."   
 Proverbs 1:18


In this first chapter of Proverbs, Solomon tells his son not to hang out with bad guys who "lay wait for blood" and "lurk privily for the innocent without cause."  Then this scripture says that they are basically laying wait for themselves.  Fascinating... and true for all of the bad things that we do in life, I think.  Whenever we hurt someone else, we are basically hurting ourselves.  And I don't think that it is in a removed "what goes around comes around" way... I think that it hurts you right then.  We harm ourselves when we set out to harm other people.  We cheat ourselves when we cheat other people.  We shut out ourselves when we shut out other people.  I wish I could explain how strongly I feel this... the temporary "benefits" we get from taking advantage of one another are less than worthless compared to the harm that we do to ourselves.  We have to extend our perspective beyond the limited gain-loss ratios that we can see with our eyes.  We are more than limited beings, and we have to think about more than what we want in a moment, to what we can have forever.  What we can learn, what we can become... why this test of life matters. :)  How are we connected to each other?  Who really do we want to be at the end of this life?  What would we like to have accomplished?  And what is in store after that... the possibilities are infinite. :)