Vince Deagler

last week i thought out loud about the shirley sherrod debacle.  as far as i can tell, its another in a long line of unintended consequences that happen so often.  here is what i mean, we highly value being ”politically correct” in our society.  this is to protect minorities from harm.  yet it was political correctness that led to shirley, a black woman being fired/forced to resign.

same is true with the gulf oil spill.  we drill in 5000 feet of water because this is where we are allowed to drill.  this reality is largely because of environmental groups pushing their agenda.  then when we have a problem like in the gulf, we can’t stop the leak because it is in 5000 feet of water.  unintended consequence. 

i could go on.  we have health care reform designed to lower health care costs that will instead raise costs.  we have a stimulus that didn’t.  etc., etc., etc.

as i have often said, beyond voting there is little i can do about anything i have mentioned above.  but unintended consequence happens all the time to us personally.  marriages don’t intend to disintegrate into divorce, but they do in about 50% of all marriages.  parents do not intend to experience difficulty in their relationships with their children, but again, this happens all the time.  i don’t think anyone sits down and decides they would like to get so far in debt they must declare bankruptcy.  i don’t think we decide to do many of the negatives we experience in life, they just kind of happen…or do they.

paul talked about unintended consequences in galations 6.  he did not call it unintended consequences, he called it sowing (planting) and reaping.  we read, “do not be deceived” maybe that suggests we can be very easily deceived.  “god is not mocked”.  that could convey the idea god is kind of an eye for an eye kind of guy, but i don’t think so.  just as in the natural world if you plant green bean seeds you will grow green beans, i think paul is telling us life works a certain way because that is how god made it to work, there is no escaping that reality.  so, whatever we sow, we reap.  in other words, whatever i am thinking, doing, saying, etc right now has great big implications for my future.  for instance, i have had that emergency phone call at night where the frantic words my marriage just failed, were exchanged.  i am not trying to minimize the pain of that kind of circumstance.  but the reality is, you’re marriage didn’t just fail.  it has been failing for a long time.  only now you can see it.  you didn’t intend for this to happen, but happen it did.

but this principle works in a positive sense too.  i prefer this scenario.  for instance in the past few months we celebrated many graduations of successful students.  but i would suggest they were successful everyday they got up, went to school, hit the books, did the work.  at graduation that success was recognized.  we might call this an intended consequence.  but it is the same principle at work.  the only thing different is the outcome.  we don’t intend the negative, we do intend the positive, but they both come from the same process.  we plant seeds, time goes by, a harvest arrives.

so, if you are dealing with an unpleasant harvest here is what i suggest.  do not blame shift, accept your role in this reality. (i am not suggesting every problem is somehow tied to personal wrongdoing, but this is often the case, so, if the shoe fits…)  identify the underlying seeds that resulted in this harvest.  confess/forsake these (as in plow up that weed filled soil).  plant new seed, good seed, that will produce the desired harvest.  be patient, seeds don’t grow overnight as in jack and the beanstalk.  enjoy, your new reality.

as i have often said, god is gracious.  he is a god of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. chances.  and for this i am very glad.  thanks for reading.  i welcome your thoughts.  blessings.  vince