For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked
They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;  they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.
They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?”
Psalm 73:2-6, 11

The integrity of college basketball is about to take a major hit. FBI investigators have found evidence that illegal secret deals to procure top athletes has recently been uncovered involving some well-known schools and coaches. Big money has been back-channeled by a large corporation to the tune of $100,000 in order to get a high school recruit to commit to a certain school. As I am writing this, no specifics have been released, but they are looming.

On the way into work, I was listening to some discussions concerning how to stop all this illegal wheeling and dealing in college sports. One commentator said, “Hey, why not just forget the charges and start paying the players? Let it slide because I don’t see who this would hurt if coaches and recruiters would just be honest, admit their secret dealings because, ‘In some shape or form, everyone is doing it.'”

Right after that comment was made, a serious, rather measured voice made this comment, “If you let people off the hook, colleges, recruiters and players just because ‘everyone is doing it’ there still is a victim.” The first commentator asked “who would it hurt?”, and here was the man’s answer, “The real victim is the school, the coach, the player that is following the rules. They are the ones who get hurt because they lose when other people violate the standards and get the advantage.”

When I heard that answer, my heart said, “That is exactly the problem.” We live in a country where everyone is claiming victimhood in some sense, but what is being completely ignored is who often the real victim is. It is the person who is living life right. Not only is their voice not heard, nor solicited, but they are often the ones blamed for problems of others. If our country is not careful, they are not seeing how this group is growing more angry and cynical by the day when they hear the cry of all the other victims.

Let me give you an example:

When I was dating my wife, I was determined to do right for her and our God. I told her parents that if they would allow me to have her hand in marriage I would provide for her, work hard and never let her go hungry. Her welfare was on me. Through my Christian convictions, I knew it was a sin to sleep with her before marriage. I also wanted to have a stable job and house before we had any children. After we got married we waited a few years to have children so we could properly care for a child: we went to birthing classes and we read many books on parenting so we would have every advantage to raise our children right. Yes, those were our convictions, but they also were traditionally tried and true principles on how to have a healthy marriage and family. And scripture even says that “those who honor God, He will honor.”

So we did our best to honor God. We did our best to prepare our child for the most favorable environment possible. We only wanted to give our children the best opportunity to start into this life well. We are not heroes, just people that took raising a child seriously, and we wanted our kids to grow up living under the blessing of God.

So we finally had our first child, a beautiful baby girl. It was a wonderful time and a scary time to figure out how to raise this baby. We had both of our respective parents come visit, my mom and dad even came all the way from Cleveland to celebrate our firstborn. It was a great time, we felt blessed.

After two months of having our daughter home, I will never forget a visit I received one quiet weekday afternoon. A 17-year-old student that was in and out of my youth group came over to my house. He was a hard-headed kid who was in trouble with the law for damaging some property. I agreed to try to help him to get his life straight and hopefully begin making right decisions. One of those decisions I was trying to advise him on was getting rid of his 16-year-old girlfriend. She was a loose girl that he was hanging around with after school. It was clear this girl was a sexually active teen, and I told him for weeks that he had better be careful with her. Well to make a long story short, he slept with her and she was found to be pregnant – – he then came to share the great news that he was having a baby.

When he came over he saw my daughter sitting in her play-pen in the other room and here is what he said, “Just think, our kids will be friends! Wouldn’t that be cool having them hanging out and growing up together?” I didn’t say a word. And I must admit it took everything out of me to even say “congratulations” on the news of his teenage girlfriend’s pregnancy.

After he left, I have to tell you, I was furious. I don’t know how to say it, but his news seemed to tarnish the wonder of having a child. We did it right, and he did it wrong – – but somehow I was supposed to be happy for him? It also infuriated me knowing he was going to more than likely need government aid, that I paid taxes for, to raise his child. I also had a pretty good idea that this young girl he was with knew nothing about raising a child, and that it was obvious they would break up in a few months leaving this child to be tossed between two immature parents.

Here is my point: those who try to play by life’s rules are feeling like they have no voice anymore in our culture. The popular credo has become “everyone is doing it, so why can’t you just accept it?” The problem with that credo is that someone has to pay for the consequences. And usually, it is the group that has been trying to live right. They have become the real victim in our society.

Over the summer I was in California visiting my sister to perform her son’s wedding. It was a great time. But while we were pulling into her driveway she turned to me and said, “You see that kid across the street, he just broke his ankles illegally jumping off of hotel roofs into pools and posting it on YouTube. He is a spoiled rich kid and he loves getting attention online doing cool jumps.”

I asked my nephews if they knew the kid. They said, “Yeah, we can’t stand him. He is always getting in trouble and his parents have to keep bailing him out of jail. And then he gets all the attention for being this ‘edgy and extreme’ thrill seeker at school. The truth is he is a narcissistic jerk living off the wealth of mom and dad.”

Notice, those who do right don’t get attention – – and those who do get attention are infuriating the rest.

I am writing this because I believe there will be a breaking point if we are not careful. As one man recently said about this NFL controversy, “The problem with our nation is the majority doesn’t want my help, nor my opinions, but they sure do want my tax money.” So if you are doing right and you feel taken advantage of, what should you do? I have three suggestions:

(1) Keep living right: God does honor those who honor him. Psalm 11 says even when the foundations seem like they are crumbling and the morals of a society are being destroyed, God is still on the throne. And he is watching.

(2) Have compassion for those living wrong: This is the hardest part, the teen that came over I eventually had to help him time and time again. His child is still made in the image of God and needed prayer and support.

(3) Be Angry and Sin Not! Anger is not wrong in and of itself, it is what you do with it. I do not think we are called to be doormats, but we should not be bombastic fools either. Use reason, patience and measured tones and hopefully someone will listen.

So if you are doing wrong what should you do? I just have one thing to say…

* Don’t be surprised when good people get mad at your decisions because they probably will be the ones who will end up paying for you in the long run.

I want everyone to hear one more thing, the real victim is the one who died on the cross to pay for all of us. Psalm 69:4 is a perspective on what Jesus did for all of us, “What I did not steal, must I now restore?” And the answer is “Yes.”