i realize this is a story previously spoken of, but the Lord has illuminated to me the value of it again. A little definition is necessary to set the stage here. A moral is “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.” And ethics are “that which governs a person’s behavior.” So, in light of that, we’re supposed to be modeling to the world the character of Christ. Jesus was honest and transparent and calls to us to be as He is. We can’t be how ever we want to be, tag God’s name on the end, and honestly call it “being like Jesus”. Our greatest strength against darkness is to come into the likeness of the Son.
i was at jail, church to be exact. Tony and i were in charge of the meeting that Thursday evening, in a room of 8-15 inmates who were taking a break from their exciting evening of doing nothing in order to attend. We prayed to open as we always do, then i got “the nod” to begin. Somewhere in the story of myself as the “True Life of a Real Believer”, there arose the idea of living with a loose belt of truth, a poorly cinched breastplate of righteousness, and a propped up helmet of salvation, all of it pretty much just hung in place, making sure it all didn’t fit too snugly, thereby making room for my own personal agenda to arise under the guise of being a Christian.
i love taking little surveys, simply because it is a nice cross-sectional view of where people are, that is if you ask the right questions and they are honest. Yea, asking a good question and getting an honest response is absolutely key as to the value of any survey. i asked the inmates a question: If there was a nickel on the table, would you put it in your pocket, knowing no one saw? The inmates almost unanimously answered, sure. Second question: If there was a $10 bill on the table, would you put it in your pocket, knowing no one saw? Some hesitated but most said, “No, what do you think? i may be a drug addict with poor morals, but do you think i’m a liar and a thief?” Laughter and silence followed but i knew they weren’t just making a joke. The room paused as the silence hung, and i said, “Yes. We’ve already established there is a morals and ethics issue concerning stealing the nickel, we’re just finding your boundaries, and where your line is pertaining to how far is too far and how much is too much.” Oh.
i went on to say, “Regardless of if it’s a nickel or a 10 spot, the problem is mankind has issues at the basic platform of faith, at the heart level, our ground zero place. At first we tell ourselves it’s ok to steal the nickel. It’s highly likely that shortly the boundary will expand to be a dime. Then we graduate it up to a dollar and beyond, rethinking each time how far is too far and how much is too much. Being in jail is almost always indicative of undealt with conflict and poor choosing. It’s not that God isn’t working in our lives, but more we’re choosing other things to be more important, and the more we ebb away from the Lord, the harder it is to hear Him when He calls. By the time you get rolled up and hauled off to jail or prison, you’ve long had a morals and ethics issue which started with being willing to steal a nickel.”
About that time, one fellow said loudly, in all seriousness with the straight face of revelation, he said, “Well, i’ll tell you, i’ve got pockets full of nickels.” We all laughed, but it was nervous laughter, as in, “Oh my gosh! i’ve got pockets full of nickels too!”
Friends, think about this. The difficulty isn’t the nickel or the 10 spot, but the fact that we’re willing to allow our own belt of truth to be a little lose. i hold that if we confess our sins, as in lip service, without the conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit, we’re just going through the motions to be part of a club. We press people who have offended us to be honest and transparent, and when they are honest and transparent we use it against them to punish them. When someone is humble, honest, and transparent about their transgression, it isn’t an opportunity to beat them up and make them bleed, it’s an opportunity for us to be honest and transparent also and stop the bleeding. It isn’t an opportunity to cut them deeper so we can feel smugly justified in our moral superiority, but put a tourniquet on the wound and stop the bleeding.
Take heed here, i didn’t say anything about not dealing with the moral and ethical issues because deal with them we must, but i am encouraging us all to be responsible for ourselves and our own actions. Get the log out of your own eye before you take it upon yourself to start digging around in someone else’s eye looking for a splinter. Whoa to the man who tries to control someone else when he cannot control himself. i have left craters man, craters in other people’s lives because i thought i saw a speck in their personality, then went and got serious excavating equipment to extract the flaw in them. i was stealing a nickel, manipulating on how i could get the owner to give me the $10 bill so i wouldn’t have to own my personal moral and ethical issues. If i could get them to give me the $10, then i couldn’t be, exactly, accused of stealing. Hear what i’m saying here, those who have ears to hear.
Approximately 5 times in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, “Follow me”, which means do as i do, say as i say, and be as i am. His use of the phrase “Follow me” literally means “accompany I AM.” The closer the Lord gets to all things, the more all things become like Him.
Neighbor, how many nickels do you have in your pockets? Undealt with issues which drive you rather than lead you?
What do you think?