A Sniveling Little Weasel Like You

Suggested Reading: Proverbs 22:8-16

Oddly, it is one of my all-time favorite movie lines. The movie is Independence Day. The evil aliens who want to wipe us from existence and steal our planet have invaded and the heroes of the movie have finally devised a plan to fight back. Everyone is onboard except the secretary of defense, Mr. Nimzicky, who has acted like a coward for the entire movie. As the final preparations for the attack are made, Nimzicky approaches the president trying to get him to drop the plan, claiming it is a mistake. Then Bill Pullman as the president delivers the line. "The only mistake I ever made was to appoint a sniveling little weasel like you Secretary of Defense. Fortunately, that is a mistake I don't have to live with. Mr. Nimzicky..." he pauses for just a moment... "you're fired."

"That is one of your favorite lines?" you ask. Yes. For the entire movie this man has has a bad attitude. For the entire movie his sour-puss attitude has pushed people into bad decisions. His defeatist attitude has done nothing but make it more difficult for those trying to save the planet. He has endorsed every senseless plan that has been presented and fought every plan that had a chance of working. When the president finally says, "Mr. Nimzicky, you're fired," the audience can't help but cheer because the "sniveling little weasel" has been removed from his position of influence. It also doesn't hurt that Nimzicky finally got his comeuppance.

The lesson the president finally learns is one that can also be found in Proverbs 22:10. "Drive out a mocker, and conflict goes too; then quarreling and dishonor will cease" (HCSB). Some people excel at stirring up trouble and causing strife, at polluting the atmosphere of attitudes and pushing us toward bad decisions. Their sarcastic attitudes infect their environment and make being productive or even positive nearly impossible.

When we encounter these people, we cannot allow them positions of influence in our lives. We cannot allow their sarcastic attitudes to influence our own or permit the drama they create to prevent us from accomplishing the tasks God has given us to compete. We must remove these people from places in our lives where they can wreak havoc or cause damage.

But more than that, we must make certain that we are not the toxic people who infect the atmosphere with our bad attitudes and create drama. We must make certain that we act as the light of the world and not in such a way that people want to turn us off.

Our lives do not have room for the toxic attitudes and drama that create strife. Don't accept it from other people, but don't allow it in yourself either.

He Was an OK Guy Before He Was Evil

Suggested Reading: 1 Kings 21:1-26

Mandy Moore once starred in a movie called A Walk to Remember, playing a devout Christian girl dying of Leukemia who falls in love with a boy named Logan. At the beginning of the movie, Logan is running around with a pretty bad crowd and ends up getting into a lot of trouble with the law. But when he falls in love with Moore's character and his friends begin changing, he ends up becoming an entirely different person until, when he again starts interacting with his old friends, even they begin behaving in a much less unlawful way.

The character arc reminds me, in reverse, of another, much more tragic story from the book of 1 Kings. King Ahab was known as an evil king. Not only did he promote the worship of idols, he was also responsible for some terrible atrocities. But when you read Ahab's story, you get the sense that he's not all that bad a guy. In fact, much of the time you end up feeling sorry for the guy. In many ways, his life was epitomized by the story of Naboth's vineyard.

Naboth owned a vineyard right up near the palace and Ahab had always wanted a vineyard near the palace. So Ahab approached Naboth about selling the vineyard to him at a very good price or possibly trading him for another vineyard in a different location. Naboth refused because the land had belonged to his family for generations. So Ahab went home and pouted. He whined and moaned and complained but he accepted Naboth's refusal. Only when Ahab's wife Jezebel got involved did things go wrong. Jezebel reminded Ahab that he was king and suggested he could have whatever he wanted. Then she arranged for Naboth to meet an untimely and humiliating death before presenting Naboth's vineyard to Ahab, who was thrilled to receive it. (1 Kings 21). At the end of his life, Ahab was warned by a prophet that the Lord was going to judge him severely for his acts of wickedness. Ahab put on sackcloth and mourned in humility and God sent Ahab a reprieve.

Ahab really does seem more like a pathetic figure than an evil guy. Except for one little detail. His wife. 1 Kings 21:25 reads, "Still there was no one like Ahab, who devoted himself to do what was evil in the Lord's sight, because his wife Jezebel incited him" (HCSB). From then on, all the evil kings of Israel were compared to Ahab. You see, Ahab's problem wasn't that he had a mind that functioned in an evil way. Ahab's problem was that he allowed himself to be influenced by evil people, Jezebel in particular. Ahab allowed himself to be dragged along and then got involved with someone else's evil mindset until it became his own.

But Ahab is not alone. I see people every day who get into trouble because they are involved with the wrong people, whether friends, co-workers, classmates or boyfriends and girlfriends. Especially boyfriends and girlfriends. Trying to please someone else, they always find themselves in trouble for things they would never do on their own. Sometimes, they even know that the problem is a person or group they shouldn’t be with but they just "can't help" the need they feel to be with them.  Sometimes they use the excuse that they are trying to witness to them or to influence them for Christ when everyone knows which direction the influence is really flowing.

Are you finding yourself in trouble for things you would never do on your own? When you find yourself in a bad or troublesome situation, is there a particular person or group that always seems to be around? If so, remove that person's influence from your life. Don't let yourself become another Ahab.