MEANINGLESS! MEANINGLESS?Sample

We could call today’s reflection “Outrage culture, continued”! 

In 1722, the American theologian Jonathan Edwards sat down to write what would eventually grow to a list of 70 resolutions for his life and character. Number 8 reads:

“Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.”

Like the Apostle Paul, who wrote that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15), Edwards was determined to view other people’s failings primarily as a prompt to reflect on his own – leading to humility and compassion, rather than complacency.

What is your first response when other people do the wrong thing?

Prayer:  Merciful Father, I pray against self-righteousness. Teach me to know the darkness of my own heart much more thoroughly than other people’s, and therefore make the grace of the Lord Jesus all the more precious to me. Amen.