Short Story: Merrily Misguided

Everyone aboard the Vapor seemed happy as could be. The band played loudly, people danced, and food abounded.

From a nearby boat on the river, Bryant watched with a tinge of envy. How easy it seemed those on the Vapor had life! Why couldn’t his life be more like that?

But all was not as it seemed on the Vapor. Merry men were at the moment, but they knew not that their boat was being driven by a great evil straight for a steep waterfall, over which none could survive. The men and women on the Vapor would have longed for Bryant’s small row boat that was heading in the right direction if they only knew their peril. Would no one stop to think about where their boat was heading in the end?

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked….But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. Psalm 73:3, 16-19 (ESV)