9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; her downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her. “O LORD, look at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!”
The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:9.
The phrase that took my attention from the first time I looked at this verse in preparation for writing this reflection was this: “She took no thought of her future.”
How many times have any of us looked back at a decision we made when we were younger and thought, “You know, I really didn’t think of my future when I did that!”
Henry Hazlitt, in his book Economics in One Lesson says (and I summarize) that all economic fallacies result from one or both of two central fallacies: 1) looking only at the immediate consequences of an act or proposal, and 2) looking at the consequences only for a particular group to the neglect of others. (He discusses this issue in chapter 1 extensively.)
Now some may be wondering why I’m quoting an economist while doing a reflection on scripture. Stated briefly, I do this because I think all of God’s universe operates according to God’s laws (not that we all obey them!), and that this is an excellent example. The failure to look to the future is a good example of this. Whether your situation is spiritual or strictly temporal, the same principles will apply.
This one line is an important lament. Why didn’t I think of the consequences? If we learned this lesson from the book–to recognize when bad decisions have led to difficulties, it would be well worth it.