Saturday March 12, 2011

Matthew 7:26-27

"And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted his house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."

What really struck me today was actually in the commentary in the Little Black Book below the chosen verse. "There is a difference between living by moral principles and simply the desire to do right" (emphasis theirs). They're right - and it's a lot harder. After all, we all want to do what's right. Well, I suppose not everyone because some people get it WAY too wrong to be really trying, but I think that's what it's so easy to lose sight of. The difference between people with different principles and people who genuinely do not mean well.

It also brings up the old point - the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So then how are we to proceed? If it's not just enough to want to do the right thing and give it our best try? We have principles and guidelines laid out for us, we are encouraged to soul search and look into our hearts and ask God - before the crisis comes. Because in the heat of the moment every idea seems at least somewhat sensible. Every course will cause some harm and do some good.

Perhaps I've just been watching too much of The Tudors, with all of the moral quandaries those characters go through. The difference between those who bend to the king's will each time he changes his mind and those who find a sticking point. It's not their better intentions, their holier souls. It's that those people have found a set of moral principles by which they have determined to live their lives. Everyone else is just meaning well and, quite often, being deceived. When the storm comes most of all.

I have always respected people who have convictions and the strength to stand by them more than others. I have more respect for someone with opposing principles who truly lives and would die by them than I do for someone who agrees with me but will desert at the first sign of trouble or sign of a paradox.

If we have faith in simple truths, from which we will not budge, I think we will also find a base from which to solve the more complicated issues that besiege us. We will have a home base from which to judge. We will have a house on a firm foundation, however undetermined we are about the wallpaper or even the walls themselves.

Lord, may Your Word always be my rock, the base of my decisions, and the code from which I live my life whatever the cost. May I be strong in my principles. Be with me Lord, when the rains come. Be with me Lord, when the issues are muddy and my judgment feels clouded. Remind me of my trust in Your Word, guide me home. I pray of You, be with me, Lord. May I always remember that You are my Rock.