Be careful what you throw; it just might come back to you.
But as the old saying goes, "I don’t care, so long as it doesn’t affect me." Come to think of it, isn't that how most people often live their lives? Live however you want, so long as it doesn't directly affect me—my family—then there might be a problem. You can affect my neighbors; I’m just glad it's not me. That soul lost for eternity? Glad it’s not me. At least my little bubble wasn't shattered, and I didn't have conflict by offending them with the facts and truth. As long as my little world doesn't seem to be affected by others, then nothing is of my concern. It's how we decide on many political topics and sometimes vote, isn't it? Hardships, but as long as my little world doesn't get too hard.
We throw the stone when we are emotional; we throw the stone when we are hurt; we throw the stone when we are proud; we throw the stone when we hate; and sometimes we throw the stone to help, encourage, and lift another up.
Come to think of it, it’s like we are always throwing a stone. We are always causing a ripple in time with what we choose in our lives.
“I don’t care, so long as it doesn’t affect me."
This is how most people live, and if we are honest, all of us live with this attitude in certain aspects of life: "as long as I'm not affected."
The problem is that the ripple will eventually affect you, just as it did another person. There is no escaping this in life. The magnitude at which it will affect you might be minimal, though, but that shouldn’t always justify the "live in your own bubble, in your own little world" attitude.
Where we see this most often is in politics. The world, the country, could be burning all around us, morals, ethics, accountability, work, freedom, liberty, and life could all be in decline, society could all be collapsing one brick at a time, or even in a complete wildfire of violent protests, looting, burning, murder, tyranny, livelihoods could be stripped for not bowing to the critical political climate of health, theory, and universal self-loathing, and yet so many people will still continue on their current path of destruction or allow others because it’s their life, somewhere else, so long as they don’t see it or feel it affecting them personally in their own little world and at the current moment.
Free by means of crime is a wicked stone to cast. The future effects, however, are not always on the mind.
Why worry about the effects today when you can kick the can down the road for the next generation?
Future generations will either grow and thrive or diminish and suffer for the stones we throw today.
It’s like King Hezekiah in the Bible. He was warned about the destruction of his kingdom, his nation, and his people because of the path of destruction and moral and ethical decline his life and culture were leading to. The stones he was throwing at that time were stones of compromise with evil and stones of appeasement. They were not stones of truth or positivity.
In 2 Kings 20:16–19, Isaiah, the prophet, told king Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the Lord: The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied. He thought, "Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?"
Who cares, so long as it doesn’t affect me and my bubble?
He had complete contempt for his nation, his people, his family, and the next generation.
He threw the stones of political immorality, but who cares so long as his pockets were lined, his feelings were appeased, his desires were quenched, his idea of social politics was implemented, his life was good, and his little world, his own life, to him at least, was not going to be affected by his decisions?
Kick the can down the road, so to speak.
This stone is not just negative actions or apathy, but it is also our words. And these words of ours are often the stones we throw most often.
"Don’t throw away a great tomorrow for a mediocre today."
Robert Schuller
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