Proverbs 14:13 RA Private Eye Hannibal Haggarty

Proverbs in 365 Devotions Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. Private Eye Hannibal Haggarty by Robin Aylor Private Eye Hannibal Haggarty was a student of the Bible. He loved the verse in Proverbs which his mother had taught him as a young boy that said a joyful heart is good medicine… However, in another context something told him laughter in itself was not a true fix for a real heartache, and deep down inside, somehow he knew it. In fact when it came to the sorrow of the soul brought on by sin, laughter was like taking a half of a baby aspirin for a throbbing migraine headache; it just wouldn’t do. Hannibal knew all about this inner soul pain and had saw the light a few years earlier. However, tonight It was not his own laughter he was contemplating even now as he currently squatted all bow legged, two feet from the floor, while holding a potted plant with one hand, a tape recorder with the other, and an unidirectional microphone with his mouth, all the while hiding behind a coat rack,… even now he secretly watched and listened to mobsters drinking and laughing about the bank job they had done earlier that evening and the people they had killed; and somehow all hyped up with wicked pride… they did not know that Private Eye Hannibal Haggarty was recording it all on his tape recorder. You know, there are some headaches that just won’t ease in the least, even if you soaked your head overnight in echinacea root, otherwise commonly known to locals as snake root and which basically only works on toothaches and the overall body functions of the immune system… Anyway, another thing about pain killers, or laughter for that matter; is that though they may temporarily deaden the pain with zombie like dullness comparable a politician giving a two hour monotone speech, no way would they cure the root of the problem at the bottom crimes of the heart and somehow deep down they knew it. That's how it was for some of the laughing murderous men there that day. They seemed ecstatically high on adrenaline and happier than any person alive on the planet could be, but by chance it may be that some of the hoodlums there that night still had a conscious; theirs had not yet been completely seared through. If so, their dreams would be projected with their victims faces that very night, and shadows of their families would follow them around for the rest of their short miserable lives… and still, amid all the shouts and laughter… deep down, somehow they knew it. My friend, there are some things not even laughing gas from your local dentist will cure. For those murderous mobsters and for us sinners as well, only Jesus can extract the guilt of sin from our heart. Only righteous Jesus could agree to be paid our wages due and become the cursed one dying on the cross. Only the promised Jesus could rise from the grave and justify all who will believe in him; he's the only hope for our sin... and my friend, somehow deep down, I think we both know it.