It Will be Different For Me     Bandit was irresistible.  No raccoon that ever existed had more natural "cute" than this ninety-day-old bundle of mischief.  When my neighbour Julie bought him at  the pet store, she was sure they would be lifelong friends.  Everywhere she went, he went - usually perched on her shoulder.  Bandit's habit of holding Julie's cheeks in his paws and looking into her eyes with sparkling curiosity always melted her and solicited an affectionate kiss and hug.  And he grew.  Eighteen months passed and Bandit became a strapping twenty-five-pound adolescent raccoon, still full of the dickens and only slightly less playful.  He still loved affection, rode on shoulders, and seemed to be a one raccoon advertisement that raccoons make great pets.   I mentioned Julie and Bandit to our zoo veterinarian one day and inquired as to why more people didn't keep raccoons as pets.  His answer floored me.   "They undergo a glandular change at about twenty-four months.  After that, they become unpredictable, independent, and often attack their owners." "Are there exceptions?" I inquired. "None that I know of." he said thoughtfully. "Then Julie is likely to be bitten?" "Any time now, I should think." the doctor added with conviction.     Since a thirty-pound raccoon can be equal to a one hundred-pound dog in a scrap, I felt compelled to mention to mention the coming change to Julie.  She sat and listened politely as I explained what an eminent world authority had shared with me concerning raccoons and their nature.  I'll never forget her answer.     "It will be differnt for me...Bandit is different."  And she smiled as she added,  "Bandit wouldn't hurt me.  He just wouldn't!" Three months later, Julie underwent plastic surgery for lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason.  Bandit was released into the wild. That happened about fifteen years ago, and I've heard Julie's reply many times since: "But it will be different for me." Rob, a sixteen-year-old boy, said, "I know what I'm doing.  It's different for me.  I know all about dosages and stuff.  My dad is a pharmacist." Rob overdosed six month later and spent two months in a mental ward. Judy, a fifteen-year-old girl, argued, "I know he's been around, but it's different with us.  He really loves me.  He really does." Judy is now twenty-five and living at home with her nine-year-old son.  The son never met his father. Jerry, an eighteen-year-old college student declared, "I'm different.  A few drinks don't slow me down a bit." Jerry is dead now, and he took three friends with him when he drove off an embankment.  They were all drunk. Pat, a thirty-five-year-old woman, continued, "My kids are different.  They will be able to handle the divorce fine.  I'll spend more time with them.  Besides, my lover is great with kids." Pat divorced her husband and got remarried to her lover.  She divorced again after he tried to kill her.  The children haven't slept well for years and need to see a counselor weekly. David, a forty-plus-year-old executive, reasoned, "Wow, she's beautiful!  Her husband is away on a business trip.  Nobody will know.  It will be different, exciting, temporary."  David ended up causing this man's wife to be pregnant.  To avoid scandal, he had the man killed.  He felt compelled to marry the woman; then her baby died.  David's life was never the same again.  That incident caused members of his family to turn against him, and one of his children even tried to kill him.  I'm sure he never dreamed that things would get so tangled.  I'm sure he thought, "It will be different for me." (You can find the executive's biography beginning in 2 Samuel 11) Let's take one step back and look at our lives.  Are we in violation of some well-known axiom?  Are our closest friends or relatives warning us about something?  Are we in conflict with the clear teaching of the Scriptures? Now, repeat out loud the following phrase, "Maybe it won't be different for me."