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Vomit is Gross. Eating Vomit is Even More Gross. Sorry, but you have to agree, eating vomit is gross!
We have 3 dogs. You can’t have 3 dogs in your home & not have some kind of “dog” things going on too. What I mean is you can’t have that many dogs & not be aware that they are in your life – everyday.
One of the wonderful things our dogs has introduced us to, is vomit eating. Yup. It’s exactly what it sounds like…dogs eating their own vomit. It’s totally 100% disgusting.
Yes, vomit eating.
It’s only happened 2 times, but suffice it to say, seeing it once is enough for a life time. (Sorry, but this has to be a little graphic to make the point.) After they eat, for whatever reason, they vomited their food right back up…almost (note the almost) totally undigested. I say almost undigested because it’s this food & slime ball of total disgust. Yet, they eat it like it is as fresh as it was the 1st time around. Yuk! Yet, they eat it – all of it.
It’s G.R.O.S.S.
The Bible talks about that very event. A dog eating its own vomit.
It’s in the book of Proverbs. AKA the book of Wisdom.
Proverbs was written mostly by a man named Solomon, King David’s son. Solomon was known as the wisest man on the Earth & Proverbs is a collection of his wisdom. The wisdom in the book is often a comparison of sorts, where the writer will simply compare 2 things or compare 2 things against each other.
Apparently, Solomon had vomit eating dogs too. Actually, Solomon compares a vomit eating dog to a person repeating the stupidity of their life over & over.
It goes like this:
Proverbs 26:11 - As a dog returns to his own vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.
Told ya…vomit eating dogs are in the book of wisdom…inserted by the wisest man who ever lived.
It’s pretty straight forward too – huh?
A fool (the word means stupid, simpleton or arrogant one) returns (repeats or tries to hide) their foolish ways (foolish or stupid decisions).
Solomon says that a person who continually returns to their foolish or stupid ways is just like a dog eating their vomit. The Proverb means, that person is either stupid, has no common sense or is arrogant enough to think they can beat the odds of their own stupidity.
I’ve known this Proverb for a long time. However, once I saw our dog eat its own vomit, the Proverb’s full implication was understood.
When someone keeps going back to their foolish ways in life, it’s like a dog eating its vomit.
Here’s what I get out of it.
When a person does something really stupid in life, the act alone identifies itself as being just that – stupid. It’s something that makes you sick. It doesn’t fit your life. It doesn’t belong on your Journey. It comes with its own rejection & lets you know that it doesn’t fit or belong in your life. You know it immediately. You always have known & you always will know…this is a stupid decision. Solomon teaches that for you to return to that is like the dog that has thrown something up (IE their body has rejected) & yet they eat it anyway.
It doesn’t matter what it is…whether it’s stupid, foolish, damaging, hurtful, addicting, destructive…on & on & on. If we know it’s NO GOOD for US – then returning to it is like eating vomit.
A few observations.
I know too many people, some of them are my friends, that battle addictions in life. Typically, their addictions are either drugs or alcohol. The battle is not what saddens me the most. It’s the statement that many of them make about some time in their recent past when they were clean or sober. They almost always have some period in their life where they were free. IE they walked away from the vomit. It might be a few months or even years of being free. But, sadly, for whatever reason, they returned.
Stupidity doesn’t have to be an addiction to drugs or alcohol. I see it also in people with anger issues. If you have an anger issue, you already know how much damage it has done to you & the ones you care most about. Yet, for any number of excuses, you return to the anger again. It goes like this – anger does some serious damage to someone or something. You apologize. You might even blame someone else (which is nothing but a bunch of pre vomit eating preparation) for your anger. Then, somewhere – you lost it again. You return the to vomit pile. Sadly so.
Your vomit pile could be a number of things. If it’s killing something in your life – you already know it needs to change. Or, using this Proverb, you already know you need to quit returning to the vomit.
So
Today, see it for what it is. Call it what it is. Talk to someone about it. Make a real change in your life.
Do whatever it takes until you return no more to the vomit.
peace.
b
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That is just disgusting, but true. Thanks.
Funny. But yes – true.
I figured the title alone might either get people to read it or cause them to run…
have a great day
b
So very true!!!! I was about to vomit reading your description!! I definitely do not want to do that in my own life; I certaintly have in the past and I’m trying not to do it again. And, I know for me, once I realized what I was doing, going back to the same things over and over (control, putting up barriers, unhealthy relationships) as I read this, it was disgusting and I’m so thankful and so much more free as soon as I realized it and got some help to fix it. And now, when I see I’ve done it again or getting close to it, the warning signs go off and I pull back. But now, thanks to you, I have a more vivid reminder!!!!!!!! I’m seeing this also in people’s lives that I care about and it saddens me that they can’t see it and don’t want to change it. Cause again, speaking from experience, the freedom is better than the vomit!!!!!
Vivid but true – huh.
Yea, seeing others in this “return” habit is part of why I wrote this. When you are outside looking in, it’s so much easier to see. If only you could help them see it too.
One day…
b
Great illustration bro ! This lesson will definately stick in my grape. Reminds me of a roadtrip Chris and I took one time from Kansas to Pa. with our three mutts in tow. One was a hopelessly bad “rider”, one loved to clean up after him, and the third one just had her ears flappin in the breeze for about a thousand miles, oblivious to it all,… (might be a life lesson there too ???)… Who knew old “brown dog” was up on his Proverbs ?…Thanks for the insight ! Peace, Tim