If [sinners] say, "Come along with us; let's lie in wait for someone's blood, let's waylay some harmless soul; let's swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot with us, and we will share a common purse" -- my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; for their feet rush into sin, they are swift to shed blood (Proverbs 1:11-16).

I have to admit:? When I read this section of the Proverbs, I don't have much of a context for understanding it.? I'm like, "Seriously?!?? Who really says that kind of thing?!?? Isn't that just some caricature of evil that they made up for comic strips?"? To me, such diabolical plotting against the innocent seems absurd.? But then again, I've lived a relatively sheltered life among respectable farmers and bankers and small-business owners (i.e. people who don't generally spend their evenings and weekends plotting random acts of violence).? I've never experienced such an "enticement session" as described in the first chapter of the Proverbs.

Still, I realize that such scenarios are not entirely implausible, just because I've never experienced it for myself.? I think about the gang wars of south-central Los Angeles... I think about the inmates at the Richland County Correctional Institution in Mansfield, Ohio, where my father works... I think about my friend who grew up among the mafia power struggles in Albania during the 1990s... And it occurs to me that some of the voices that I've heard in these contexts might very well be capable of offering such enticement in a way that sounds realistic, not contrived.? In American gangs and prisons, killings are a sort of status symbol, a rite of passage into manhood and acceptance among the community of their choice.? In the Albanian mafia, it's kill or be killed -- so one necessarily has to be looking for targets of opportunity.? And from everything I've observed, people in these circumstances are very aware of the fact that their day-to-day reality is a sort of living hell that has to be embraced and controlled -- or else they will be the ones getting swallowed up.? So when I read Proverbs 1:11-16 in this context, it becomes much more real and much more tragic.

What, then, am I supposed to do about these problems?? Honestly, I'm not sure it's such a significant possibility that I would be enticed in such a direction (Though who knows what I could be capable of doing, if you took away my material posessions, my family, my community, and my sense of dignity?? I mean, how do I really know what it would be like to be hunted?)... At the very least, I don't feel like I have to memorize Proverbs 1:11-16 to equip myself for day-to-day temptation on the personal level.? I'm not even sure how real the danger might be that my children would be tempted in this direction.? But is there some role for me in reaching out to the gangsters of L.A. or the mobsters of Albania or the inmates of the prison systems?? Maybe there is.? On the one hand, those people can seem a million miles away.? But on the other hand, isn't there a prison in just about every decent-sized city?? Aren't there always poor people, migrants, and marginalized people groups somewhere nearby?? Maybe they might be the ones who need to hear the warnings and pleadings of Proverbs 1:11-16 -- and in the meantime, maybe I would do well to address some of the larger underlying issues of poverty, prejudice, and injustice in the world around me.? How can I use my money, my vote, my relationships, and my time to provide opportunities for young men and women in those people groups to choose for something other than the way of sinners?

If I get past the initial feelings of absurdity and ignorance, I see that Proverbs 1:11-16 really does have quite a bit to say to me.? Now, I just have to figure out how I'm going to respond.