3. I always make things worse when I take matters into my own hands.
Whenever I ignore the warning signs, forget to pause and pray, and just pursue what I want, I always end up in trouble.
Again, I have never killed an unarmed teen, but I have murdered a few dreams trying to do things my way. I have assassinated a few aspirations and committed genocide on quite a few goals because I was impatient and couldn’t wait for God to give me the go-ahead.
Whether in life, business, ministry or relationships, I have learned that it’s always safer to seek wise counsel and not to take matters into my own hand.
Proverbs 24:6 says, “By wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety.”
The opposite of this is also true. Whenever I go “rogue vigilante” I have enormous destructive potential. No one is safe—including me.
There is no doubt that George Zimmerman went “rogue vigilante” on the night of February 26, 2012. Because he chose to take matters into his own hands, he made matters worse.
He jeopardized his own safety by getting out of his car to pursue Trayvon Martin. He also jeopardized the safety of every citizen in that community by discharging his weapon in a residential neighborhood, and he jeopardized (and ultimately ended) the life of Trayvon Martin that night all because he chose to take matters into his own hands.
I must admit that I’m often guilty of doing the same thing.
That’s when I usually default to the next thing that George Zimmerman and I have in common.