Overcoming Bigotry

I do not remember the young man’s name; but I remember what he said, and the look on his face when he realized what he had said. His words were, “I hate bigots!”

If he had said, “I hate bigotry” it would not have been the same. If he had said, “I hate the fact that I still find a bit of bigotry in myself” it would have been significantly different. But he said, “I hate bigots.” That was nearly 40 years ago. I still wonder how life has gone for that (no longer young) man.

I wonder if he would have hated Pete. Pete was a preacher in an earlier era. He preached about how much God loved everyone. He preached about taking the gospel to everyone. But he was unwilling to eat with people of other races. God might love everyone, and he might even be obligated to say so in his preaching, but surely God did not expect Pete to eat with Gentiles.

So Peter thought and so Peter practiced. Even after the Lord gave Simon Peter a vision regarding inclusiveness and commanded him to change his practice (Acts 10 & 11), he still fell back into his bad habits at times (Gal 2:11-14). Peter was wrong, and Paul rebuked him sharply for it. But Paul did not hate Peter, bigot though he was.

It is hard to hate the bigotry and yet love the bigots. It is hard to hate the sin and yet love the sinner; yet most of us manage to do it with reference to ourselves. We hate our sin; and yet manage to avoid hating ourselves. Could we not extend the same grace to others?

Someday we will approach the gate of heaven. If the old jokes are correct, a recovering bigot named Peter will be there to greet us. Will we hate him? I hope not. Because if we get inside that gate we will find the city full of people who had failings, and who never completely overcame most of those failings in their earthly life. Eternity will be rather tedious for us if we choose to focus on those failings.

Constructive Criticism

We should always accept “constructive criticism,” or so we are told. But does that really make sense? I recently read an article that suggests otherwise. Sally Illingworth said, “What I’ve learned is to take constructive feedback from only those whom have constructed something in their life….”

Now that makes better sense.

Should a master mechanic spend time listening to advice from a person who cannot tell a dipstick from a differential? Should a parent take parenting advice from those who have shown themselves to be disastrous parents? Should a carpenter build according to advice given by someone who has never built so much as a birdhouse?

Not all advice is of equal value. Eve should not have listened to the dietary advice of a snake; it would have saved a world of trouble. Rehoboam should not have listened to the advice of his immature friends; it would have saved the Kingdom of Israel if he had ignored them.

We should not heed everyone’s advice. The book of Proverbs instructs us to listen to certain people and just as clearly tells us to ignore others. Those who have proven themselves by godly living and by service to others are to be heeded (1 Cor 16:15-16).

To heed everyone is at best a waste of time and will often lead to disaster. Choose your advisors carefully and prayerfully. Take constructive criticism only from those who have been constructing something good.

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice (Psalm 37:30, ESV).
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse (Proverbs 10:32, ESV).

Missed Opportunities

On my first trip to Africa in 1985, I changed planes in New York. As my inbound flight taxied toward the terminal, we had to stop to allow another plane to land. I had a window seat. A Concorde landed right beside us. But I did not snap a picture. It was a lost opportunity that will not occur again. The Concorde no longer flies.

Later, from another airplane during that same trip, I had a chance to get a photo of Mount Kilimanjaro. I figured that I would see plenty of that mountain. I did not take the picture. I have seen Kilimanjaro again and taken photos of it; but I have never had another opportunity to take a photo of it from the air. It was a lost opportunity that is unlikely to occur again.

Every day is full of opportunities. Many of those opportunities will never occur again. Missed photo opportunities are not a huge issue, but some of the opportunities we let pass are far more significant.

Encourage someone today. Yes, you may get another opportunity to encourage someone tomorrow; but you will never get today’s opportunity back.

Speak the gospel to someone this week. Yes, you may have the chance to do so again later, but then again, you might not.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going" (Ecclesiastes 9:10, ESV).
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10, ESV).

Inability is no Excuse

Inability to do one task is no excuse for refusing some other task. The oft-quoted (and misquoted) words of Edward E. Hale still ring true.
“I am only one, but still I am one.
“I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
“And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

Helen Keller (blind and deaf from childhood) was one who often quoted these lines. Many people, with all their senses working perfectly, have excused themselves from trying by focusing on their inabilities.

C.S. Lewis spoke to another common excuse when he told a group of students during World War Two, “If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.”

Of course, we cannot do it all. Of course, conditions are unfavorable. But if we hide behind these excuses Satan will see to it that favorable conditions never develop, and what ability we do have will atrophy. The person who does nothing soon reaches a state where he can do nothing.
As some else states,

Moses had a walking stick.
David had a sling.
Samson had a jawbone.
Rahab had a string.
Mary had some perfume.
Dorcas had a needle.
All were used by God.

So, do something. It may not be much but do it and wait for the Lord to bless your effort.
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have (2 Corinthians 8:12, ESV).

The "Venting" Myth

It is common knowledge that “venting” is good for us. “Go ahead,” people say, “get it off your chest.”

That “common knowledge” is a myth, an urban legend, an old-wives tale. Research on the subject tends to indicate the opposite. The more we talk about our frustrations, the more we reinforce them.

I knew that. I had read some of the research. But I made the mistake none-the-less. I have kept a diary for several years. Without realizing it, I began to use my diary as a form of venting. I recorded the negative, the insults, the failures, the times when I did not feel well. In fact, it seems that if I had a good day, I did not record it. Only the disasters were counted worthy of being recorded.

The result, according to the venting myth, should have been that I would have gotten these things off my mind. The reality was that I was reinforcing the negative emotions. I felt worse and worse. Finally, I realized that the diary was part of the problem, so I gave up keeping one.

Then someone suggested to me that I restart the diary, but this time I should record only success. I was urged to write down two or three things that went well, even at the end of a day when many things went wrong.

It was not easy to do this. At first it seemed dishonest; but I kept trying. I realized that it is no more dishonest to record the good and overlook the bad than it had been to record the bad while overlooking the good. Slowly it began to make a difference. Just as venting the negative had reinforced the negative, recording the positive began to reinforce the positive.

The research indicates the value of thinking on the good rather than the bad. My own experience has now confirmed it. But I should have known it all along, for it is the teaching of scripture.

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, ESV).

Two Severed Fingers

My grandfather owned a table saw. It was not a Delta, or a Craftsman, or DeWalt. It was a home-made table saw. Now I can highly recommend home-made bread, home-made peanut butter, and even home-made soap; but I have never seen a home-made table saw that I trusted. That saw was an accident waiting to happen.

A really nice table saw may cost between $500 and $2000. I do not know what my grandfather originally paid for his saw, but about 1967 it almost cost him two fingers. He was trying to rip a board when something slipped and he sliced the first two fingers of his left hand – severing them almost completely. [That much is true; the rest is parable.]

For years people had been telling him that they could keep the slightest of connections to the body of Christ and still manage to remain spiritually alive. So, my grandfather decided to test the claim. He asked the doctor to just stem the bleeding, but not to bother reconnecting the fingers to his hand. After all, if members can remain spiritually healthy while barely participating in the life of Christ’s body, why couldn’t two of the members of his physical body remain healthy while disconnected almost completely from his body?

His fingers died, of course. His body suffered for the loss of those fingers, of course. But it was a noble experiment and it proved what everyone should have known, that the health of a member always depends on the close connection of that member to the body.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:27, ESV).

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (John 15:4-6, ESV).

The Centrality of Truth

A Nigerian friend shared this information in a recent newsletter. He wrote,
“When the late Wendell Broom paid his last visit to Nigeria, he made this statement, ‘NIGERIA IS GOING TO BE THE CENTRE OF RELIGION.’ That statement has become a very big challenge to me and many others.
1. Would it be a Religious Centre and a place of worshiping God ignorantly as the people of Athens?
2. Would it be a Centre of entertainment in the name of worship?
3. Would it be a Centre or a place to worship God in vain because of teaching the doctrine of men?”

To many people, religion is all about stirring the emotions. But for Jesus, a saving faith is grounded in revealed truth. Those who do not have, or are not interested in the truth, are lost – even though they may worship enthusiastically. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9, ESV).

Ignorance does not save. Sincerity does not save. Those who “know not God” are not saved by not knowing him; they are lost thereby according to the scriptures (2 Thess 1:8). Saul of Tarsus was as sincere as he could be when he clung to Judaism, but he was still in his sins until baptized into Christ (Acts 22:16). It is not any and all forms of religion that will save. If we are saved, we are saved “by obedience to the truth” (1 Peter 1:22).

A church should be many things. The church is pictured as the bride of Christ, the family of God, and as the kingdom of heaven. There are emotions involved in our work and our worship; and there certainly should be enthusiasm involved. But the revealed truth of God’s word must always be central.

Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. (Proverbs 23:23, ESV)