There was a time as a child (old enough to know better) that I had joined a few friends going somewhere my parents didn’t want me to go. Upon being found out and immediately asked why I had done it, I answered, “Well, everyone else went.”

The next question was whether or not I would have followed them if they were going over a cliff. Then I got the talk on all that could have gone wrong based on the area we went, the fact that no one knew we were going, and a general lack of consideration of the possible consequences. All this was just so I could be with friends.

Right now I see and hear people saying things and acting on secondhand information. They fail to “fact check” the information they act on. There are billboards calling for Elon Must to keep his hands off their Medicare. He and his team have said many times that Medicare and Medicaid will continue as benefits. There is a hatred for Mr. Musk’s business success that is inexplicable to me.

One woman told me her daughter is sure that President Trump will outlaw interracial marriage. No evidence, she heard nothing specific, she just presumes based on what she’d heard about him being a radical racist. (Thank God this is not true).

And then, we all have those people out there who have very little understanding of why they hate Tesla or Elon Musk or both and they are stunned when they learn there will be consequences for keying a person’s car. Their hatred causes them to delight that Tesla stock is going down and they are rejoicing in the wrecking of a man’s business who has many employees who would go down with him.

I pray that no one perpetrating this vandalism claims to be a Christian. The Bible is pretty clear that we are not to delight in the fall of someone else, even our enemy.

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles” Proverbs 24:17.  (Using this verse does not indicate that I think Musk is their enemy, but the vandals all seem to think he is.)

The Bible is also clear that we are to respect the property of others. Animals, grain, land – God honors personal property and has set restitution laws in place for those who would steal it or harm it. (Exodus 22:6, 12).  By God’s grace some of those laws of God are part of our national laws.

Perhaps, though, a godly principle that we rarely think about (and it seems the culture has forgotten it altogether) is that we are to “consider.” The thesaurus gives us, “ponder,” “think through,”  and “contemplate” as synonyms. It is the same message my parents tried to teach me – consider the consequences before taking action.

A fitting Proverb seems to be Proverbs 28:22, “A man with an evil eye hastens after riches, And does not consider that poverty will come upon him.”

Whether those riches we want are the approval of others or a day in the limelight of liberal politics or even actual cash (there have been so many keying events on Teslas that I have to wonder if someone is recruiting and paying people to do it.)

In this case, “considering the consequences” gives an opportunity to avoid fines and or prison but most importantly the wrath of God. Many people need to hear the truth about what God says about what they are doing.

Will we consider telling them?