Ouch. That Was Stupid

“Thorns [and] snares [are] in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.” (Pr 22:5 AV)

I have to admit, the word ‘forward’ struck me this morning.  I thought I knew what it meant, but I wasn’t certain.  When I did open a dictionary, I discovered I didn’t know the meaning.  I assumed it meant stubbornly rebellious.  Sort of like be presumptuously disobedient.  Not so.  The word means distorted.  The understanding here is forwardness is the deliberate act of leaving what is the right way for another way.  The motive or degree matters not.  It doesn’t matter if the errant is stubbornly presumptuous or simply carried away by temptation.  Either way, the choice is deliberate and self-determinate.  The way in which he or she chooses to go is the point here.  The result is what we want to consider.  When we veer out of the way God intended for us, there are thorns and snares waiting.  Thorns are immediate consequences.  Snares and lingering ones.  We cannot live contrary to the word of God and not expect there to be harmful consequences as a result.

I know something of thorns and snares.  I have spent innumerable hours hiking in the underbrush looking for delicious fare for the table.  Sometimes, one must go right through the thorns to kick up dinner.  A few nights before my wedding day, all the male relatives on my wife’s side decided they would go out and hunt racoons.  That was back in the day when racoon pelts were worth something.  They decided the best way to help my future father-in-law pay for our wedding was to fill his truck with racoon.  Actually, that is one of my fondest memories.  What a tradition!  Better than any bachelor party I could have ever had.  So, a few hours after dark, off we went.  They released the hound.  He treed several coons that night.  However, I received a battle scar in the process.  My in-law’s land is in the wilderness.  It is thick with thorn apple bushes.  It literally has an infinite number of wild grape bushes that went to thorns.  To get through his woods unscathed, one needs Kevlar from head to toe.  I was new to the woods and seeing as how geometry was my favorite class during my high school years; I figured the shortest distance between to point was a direct line.  That may be so, but in a wilderness infested with thorny adversaries, it is not the wisest way.  I suffered a deep scratch in my nose, which was scabbed over for our wedding day.  Needless to say, my wife was not happy with her dad.

When reading the verse above, one cannot help but notice that the way of the forward inherently contains thorns and snares.  The thorns and snares are there whether the forward go there or not.  Traps and injuries infest the way.  The forward puts himself in that situation rather than the situation being accustomed or created for the forward.  I could have chosen a better way to the tree which held my quarry.  I could have taken a moment and thought my steps through.  I could have asked for advice from those older men who had done this dozens of times.  I could have held back and let someone else take the shot until I had learned how to do so without injuring myself.  Thorns and snares are cruel teachers.  They really do not care what the cause of motive was for the one entrapped.  Consequences are what they are.  There is no mercy.  The best way the forward can avoid the thorns and snares is to slow down, think it all the way through, remain humble, and follow the way laid out by the LORD.  If I would have taken my time that night and looked around, would have found some game trails that would have led me to where I needed to be.  If I would have considered the consequences as avoidable rather than inevitable, I would have found a better way.  We don’t have to suffer as much as we are.  We can avoid some of the trouble we experience.  Especially the trouble which we bring upon ourselves.