I remember the look on my kid sister’s face the first time she heard me curse. It was as if I had just told her there was no Santa Claus. As her delusions about my virtue vanished before my eyes, rather than try to recapture what I could not regain, I simply told her, “Now you know the truth about me, that I am also human”. It was nice to realize that until that day my sister might have thought I was perfect in some small facet of my being. It has been nice since then to realize that it is ok to be human and that I need not be afraid to discover my weaknesses.
We have this somewhat irrational fear as human beings of being imperfect. In our schools, we begin with the misbegotten notion that everyone has an ‘A’, and that mindset transcends into the rest of our lives to where we act as if a thing is worthless if not perfect. By this logical fallacy, we turn away potential mates, vote against potential statesman, withdraw money from potential profit, and edge ever further from potential success, peace, and happiness. I believe that this accounts for most of the problems in the Christian Faith. Far too many of my brothers and sisters in Christ think that they must first cleanse themselves in order to be acceptable to Christ. For this reason, they pray to Mary and crusade to Jerusalem, hoping to do some great thing and earn redemption. You cannot redeem yourself. You are what must be redeemed.
Like I tell my students, failure does not indicate your value. It shows you where you need to focus your efforts. Rather than roasting people and celebrating that they are weak like we are, we should use those opportunities to reinforce redemption and reformation as principles of mortality. I read today on Facebook about an old friend and her daughter. Her daughter asked her what silly or stupid things she did as a girl and then seemed relieved to realize that her mother, whom I am sure she idolizes and idealizes, is also human. Moments like this, rather than reasons for ridicule present us with precious potentialities to punctuate principles that help make bad men good and good men better. Far too often we laugh and point out the weaknesses in others without realizing how others see this. When we mock people we know in front of our children, our children may relate that mockery to themselves when they make unwise choices. Be careful while looking for the mote in another person’s eye not to gouge something out with the beam that is in your own.
It is odd sometimes that we can cast out a man for a moment in an otherwise brilliant and bright life while we extend exigent mercy to others who have shown a disposition to destroy. We strain at gnats and swallow camels, excited over a human mistake in a man who declares his intent to follow the Master. Intention and execution are not the same, but just because we fall short does not mean that we are liars or moving contrary. Take three steps forward and one step backwards, and you still made a little progress. Do not belittle people for failing to live perfectly a moral code you are unwilling to even attempt. Jesus commanded us to be perfect, but He made intercession for all men, not for ‘if’ we sin, but for ‘when’, knowing that none of us would be always able to be perfect, no matter how we tried. Then, to show us that redemption really works, He set Peter over His church after Peter thrice denied Him and called Paul to the Apostleship after Paul helped persecute His disciples. They, after all they had done, were saved by Grace, not of themselves lest they should boast, but Grace of God made manifest through His Only Begotten Son.
Everyone makes mistakes. I do not think it is possible for any man, on his own, to always be on his best behavior. My close friends know that I try very hard to be, but even they know finally that I am not the paragon of virtue they once thought me to be. The difference I think between people who appear paragonal and those who don’t care is that the former are inclined to own their mistakes and then correct them while the latter insist that “it doesn’t make any difference” and hope that other people will forget them. What God requires of us is unwearied diligence, to evince a spirit of dedication and discipline and improvement in our actions, and uncompromised submissiveness to His will, timing, and plan for our lives. Only then will it, by the grace of God, become possible for us to follow every commandment with exactness.
The great opportunity for people of faith in mortality is to realize their humanity and their reliance on a Redeemer. We should not be afraid to realize our weaknesses. They show us how much we need a Savior and they help us know where we really stand, what we really mean, and where it would be best to focus our efforts on self-reformation. In order to arrive at our intended destination, it behooves us to know where we really stand. Only then can we set a true and reliable course to where we intend to be. Christ offers men the opportunity to rise up when they fall, realizing that reformation is possible and rise above the instincts and proclivities of the natural man for something better.
1 comment:
I love this. As always, thank you!
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