On our way to Philadelphia we came up behind a car being very poorly driven. The driver changed lanes several times without signaling and when we passed him he was on his cell-phone. The real surprise was the business name on the side of the car was Farmers Insurance. So much for being a role model. I realize not one of us is perfect but this was excessively bad.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” That could be a source of major discouragement. It is setting the bar so high we can’t even see it let alone get there. Perhaps the issue is one’s definition of perfection. John Dewey, the great American philosopher, urges us to understand that perfection is a process. He proposes that no matter how good someone has been if he ceases to grow he is a bad person. And a person with a morally unworthy past, who is moving to be better, is a good person. I like this concept but fear for the elderly. I have watched some very kind, generous people age into someone not nice to be around. Surely we can take comfort in the knowledge that God knows the condition of their aging minds and treats them with love and understanding.
For those of us who think we are still mentally running on all eight cylinders our challenge, our goal, our destination is to be a better person today than we were yesterday. A comforting promise is found in John 15. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will abide with and in us so we do not have to do it alone.
Written by Roger Bothwell on February 4, 2013
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org