Ecclesiastes 10:8 He who digs a pit will fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent.

There is a story of a trapper who missed his prized fox every time he tried to catch him. So, he dug a hole and put sticks and leaves on top to hide the hole and then baited the trap with chicken meat. Little did the trapper know the wily fox saw him and understood what he was doing. That night the fox dug a tunnel from a distance down to the bottom of the hole. He then went to the trapper’s camp and swiped his gold pocket watch. The next day the fox saw the man coming and went to the trap and grabbed the chicken and fell in the hole. The trapper ran to his trap and did not find the fox in the hole but did see his expensive time piece. Without thinking him jumped in to take back possession of his watch and found himself imprisoned by his own trap.

This is just like us. We get angry or jealous and want others to suffer because of our emotions. But this leads us to sin and finding ourselves entrapped by the desires of our jealousy and anger. We pull down the shroud of our fellow man dehumanizing them. But we find that this all leads to a wasted life and ruined reputations. The lack of controlling ourselves ends badly for us. It is like us drinking poison thinking it will hurt someone else. There is no benefit to our souls for this type of behavior.

We are called to treat others like we would like to be treated. In this day and age, meanness and cruelty seem to prevail. We see so much of this around the world. Christians are called to be a light on a hill. We are to exemplify Jesus to those around us. Seeing Christ in us will make them curious and want to know what sets us apart. It is not always what we say but what people see us doing. Be the person who breaks the circle of sin.