📖 TREE 331: Gloat like a butterfly, get stung
One.
Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the Lord will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from them.
Proverbs 24:17-18, NIV
First, let’s try and read this without the lenses of superstition or fear.
Why would I not gloat when my enemy falls? It seems like a fun thing to do. Is there a positive reason?
The teaching1 of the bible is consistently about movement from hatred to love, from enemy to friend (or at least non-enemy).
This mirrors human desire. We want peace and friendship.
But this teaching is out of step with human culture. The way we imagine achieving peace and friendship is through the destruction of our enemies. We define ever more precisely who our enemies are and who the associates of our enemies are. Then one stumbles and we rush to join the gleeful internet lynch mob.
And have we got more peace and friendship?
Culture can only change when brave people behave differently than the majority. Someone has to show a better way. Someone has to start moving from hatred to love. These brave people are the ones who get things done.
Fortunately for us wannabe brave people, the starting place is achievable: don’t gloat. You don’t have to do a big thing. Just don’t do this small thing.
Bonus: the biggest rewards go to the early movers.
Two.
Bill the frog believed he could fly, so he did.
Until the momentum of his leap petered out and gravity took control of his trajectory.
Sarah the frog (not shown) believed she could fly. She sat on the edge of a cliff dreaming of soaring through the air until a frog-eating owl swooped down and snatched her away. It wasn’t what she had in mind.
Gerhardt the fairly sensible frog (not shown) believed he could fly, so he tried to enrol in flight school. He did not meet the minimum height requirements.
Three.
Last week, I stumbled across this new band from Liverpool. I am a fan.
Once upon a time, I was a pastor. This week, I’m sharing a few snippets from the bible that have stuck with me.
Grow slowly
Jeff
Let’s not worry about individual blood-soaked Old Testament stories for the moment. Maybe we’ll take those on another day.
I have to say, I am a fan of this band too.
Did you know the word “gloat” has Old Norse origins meaning “to grin”? Not that gloating is hard to not do. Because it is easy to not sit smugly in someone else’s success or misfortune even (see your shadenfruede reference), but it IS easy to sit happily in your own successes. Which is also gloating.
Sit and celebrate humbly.
I have lived 45 years a Christian. That means love is my drug. I love knowing and feeling loved. Love has so many applications it will take the remaining years to explore it further. I was taught that gloating was hateful. It’s ego swelling kind of stuff. I am more loving with less ego. I heard it put this way, let’s say your neighbor gets a new car. Are you happy for him or her? Or envious. Best be careful. You just might just get into gloating. If you are happy for your neighbor, you could be next in line for a new car. Not that it would just appear necessarily. But your attitude sets you up for good things to happen. I prefer to error on the side of good. How about you?