Vanity Was His Downfall

I once worked with a young man who was well-liked and seemed to get along with everyone. Let’s call him Marcus. Marcus appeared to be committed to his job and was slowly given greater responsibilities. We believed in him.

Seemed, appeared and believed, interesting choice of words wouldn’t you say? Well that’s because we eventually discovered that Marcus was not the person we thought he was. In fact, we discovered that along the way, Marcus had started to abuse our collective trust by stealing from the company.

He was eventually caught but not before he had managed to steal quite a bit. We were, of course, devastated as we had considered him to be a trusted colleague and friend.

When asked why he did it, he answered, “Because I wanted to feel important and know what it was like to have nice things.” Marcus had taken pride in vanity. He wanted to stand out in the community, and to him, it meant having possessions. Sadly, the only way that he thought that he could make it happen was to steal.

Not only was Marcus fired, he was arrested and the proceeds of his crime were all seized. “They will collapse and fall.” (verse 8)

I know that you are with me, Lord, and will guide me in making the right choices in life. Amen. — DR