Bright Spot: Just because we say it doesn't mean 'it will be different for me'

One comedian cried, “You are unique ... just like everybody else!” Another one, Lily Tomlin, poignantly lamented: “I always wanted to be somebody. I should have been more specific.”

Uniqueness. We humans are as unique as snowflakes, no two the same. However, our reasoning that somehow we will uniquely escape the consequences of the same actions that snowed others is dangerous.

Consider the eighth grader who found a wild baby raccoon rummaging through the family garbage. She begged her parents to let her keep Bandit as a pet. A visiting friend who worked at a large zoo warned the family that this cute baby, which the girl would allow to ride on her shoulder, would soon, unpredictably, have wild hormones kick in and become violent and dangerous with its razor sharp teeth and claws. The girl’s response every time she was warned: “It will be different for me. You don’t know my Bandit.”

A couple of years later, the zoo-keeping friend saw this now teenage girl, showing serious scars on her face. Privately inquiring he found out that, as he forewarned, the raccoon turned on the owner while riding on her shoulder and the grim scars served as a reminder that most of the time: “It won’t be different for you.”

How many times have we said: “It will be different for me,” out loud or silently, as we took a drag on a cigarette or joint, drank way too many drafts, and then got behind the wheel, listened to music or looked at pictures or movies that obscured our sense of the obscene. Or we neglected a relationship that can no longer be restored due to damage, divorce or death?

This warning needs heeding by individuals and nations alike. How many American presidents, politicians and military men thought they were smart enough not to get caught by the erroneous “Domino Theory” that kept young Americans dying in Vietnam? An error repeated in Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly now in Ukraine?

“It will be different for me.” The Library of Mistakes was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, precisely to keep this deadly phrase from making nations fall. The library’s purpose is summarized in another memorable quote – “To keep people from continuing to do stupid things,” that is learn from their missteps and those of others.

The great apostle Paul encouraged the same for all God’s people to learn from the wayward steps of the nation of Israel whose bodies littered the desert because they didn’t obey the life-giving laws of God: “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us.” (I Corinthians 10:11) We need to learn from others or fail in the same ways they did, because it won’t be different for us!

Rick Sams is pastor emeritus of Alliance Friends Church.

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: We might want success, but life doesn't guarantee a positive outcome