Doesn't our heart react when we see people get away with things? Many people don't like it when people gain things legally ...if it is in excess of what they have. There is something very wrong when it gnaws at your heart. But, it is natural when we see something clearly wrong that someone is allowed to get away with. Yet, this narrative can also be selective ...and people who don't want something to happen to them, sadly, don't mind so much when someone else takes a hit. And the suffering is not just the concept of "what goes around, comes around", it also includes many emotional biases, prejudices, and even hatred.

We look at the Goliath-types of our day ...spewing forth defiance.  But, even with Goliath, to the Philistines ...he was a hero.

When I was working at the Institution, there were many cliques ...particularly involving those in administration and those underlings as myself.  There was a general friendship among us underlings ...as we were faced with the same tasks, and to a degree had to work together.  But, in an attempt to seek favor with administration ...some of the workers entered into cliques that belittled others.  I was generally liked by the other workers, but I did not like it when they isolated certain workers and did not treat them fairly.

Sometimes the unfairness can lead to verbal abuse ...but it can go even further than that when criminal elements are involved like in a Bonanza episode we just viewed at home.

With only one barber shop in the small Western town ...Little Joe had waited for an hour or so, for his turn for a haircut.  As it finally became his turn, Little Joe sat in the barber chair.  Three strangers came into the barber shop at this time, and one of the men said he was in a hurry and wanted a haircut first ...wanting to take Little Joe's place.

Little Joe said there were two other people also waiting ...and they all had to wait, that's just the way it was.

The man pulled a gun on Little Joe, and said he was telling him to get up, not asking.  The other two men who had come in with this stranger also pulled their guns.  Little Joe got out of the chair, but one of the other men of the town sat in the barber chair ...and the stranger gritted his teeth, turning his gun on the man now in the chair who contended, "No man is going to kill over a haircut."  Little Joe pleaded with the man to get out of the chair, the man's teenage son waiting just outside.  But, the man continued to sit there ...stating it just wasn't right.

When the man refused to move, the stranger shot him.

The three strangers attempted to leave town, and two were caught ...one of them being the one who'd done the killing, but the third man had escaped.

The two went to trial, with a hot-shot lawyer ...who got the third man's twin brother out of a neighboring jail, bringing him under custody into the courtroom for the witnesses to tell whether it was the third man that had escaped.  The prime witnesses thought the third man had just been caught, and testified that it was definitely him.  But, when the lawyer announced that it was a brother who was in jail at the time ...the jury could not view the witnesses as credible.

The townspeople were all upset, especially for the poor teenage boy who was still angered by the injustice. The three strangers went free ...but they went back into town, found one of the witnesses in a restaurant and said they wanted the table he was sitting at.  The one murderer grabbed the waitress, and did not relent until after her screams.  He then went back to that same barber shop, and demanded a haircut.

To say this man's heart was wicked, probably describes most people's feelings ...as it depicts the bad in this world, and makes us all angry.

But, most situations are not this extreme ...and we get angry over much less.  We don't often seek the best way to handle our emotions in a situation like this either.

If we look back to when Stephen was stoned, Saul was an accomplice. What he was doing was very bad, but the special ingredient that was missing in his heart was God.  God was pricking his conscience, but he was kicking against it.   And he said, "Who art thou, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."  Through blindness, Saul actually saw with the heart what he was being shown.

If we were blind ...we would not care about most of the things we seem to care about (Don't get me wrong, I'm not proposing you not comb your hair before you leave the house)

Yet, we should never be blind to the truths that God would have us see.