Conesquences

A Wiley Coyote Culture:

I was eating dinner alone last night and I happened to be people watching as is my way when eating alone. I was also taking the time to read through my Sunday school book and it happened to use Mr. W. E. Coyote as an example, so it connected in my mind.

What I heard was the World Series on TV and the guys in the bar area talking about the pitching, hitting and coaching. I also heard several tables of folks ordering food, and chatting.

I heard one guy telling the waitress that he misordered and that she should take it back and get him what he wanted. He then told the waitress that he would not pay the extra for the swap, as he thought that a good customer service would simply accept the change with out comment or compensation. His wife also wanted a margarita, but was not pleased with it, and did not want pay for it.

One couple was chatting about how their friend, who had cheated in his marriage, should be welcomed back with out comment. Their reasoning about that was that the marriage was "through good and bad, health and sickness" and the man compared the bad decisions to a sickness, and there fore it should be excused without comment.

I think this is people taking a look at life like it is a cartoon, you can make bad decisions, run right off a cliff, and have no consequences. The new one concept that everyone wants to avoid in these days is "accountability". I have never had a problem with accepting the consequences of my bad decisions, and there are plenty of them. In the Road Runner Cartoons the coyote always had a hair brained scheme to catch the elusive prey and it never seemed to work out well for him. When he fell, crashed, blew up, ran into a wall, got crushed by a rock, or otherwise was exposed to something that should have mutilated him, he walked away to a funny sound and came right back after the commercial, there were no consequences to his actions. The Coyote was never accountable.

The culture we are in is the Coyote, a goal is identified and every hair brained idea is entertained, and there are no considerations to the consciences. People will pursue the prey to the point of ignoring the environment, or even if they are running right off a cliff. When people in this pursuit fail, they expect to fold up like an accordion and walk away squeaking. When this happens and people do not bounce right back, when thy are held accountable to the consequences, they hate the world and blame God for the unfairness. What is referred to by Americans as unfairness is actually fairness.

Thank God for forgiveness, but that does not prevent consequences. In bible study we talked about confession, and how it is a spiritual discipline. Forgiveness requires repentance to be effective, in that term is the concept of compensation, renewal, repair of the breach.

I think that this world needs to have more repair, more forgiveness, and more acceptance of accountability.

Leave your thoughts, weather you agree or not, I would like to know what the ones who read think.