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Consistently Inconsistent
Consistently Inconsistent
Don Truex
“There should be a universal ban on the sale, manufacture, importation and possession of handguns.”
“Upon hearing a burglar at his residence, the homeowner called the police, retrieved a handgun from his bedroom, and proceeded to shoot the intruder.”
Interestingly, the nationally syndicated columnist and gun-control advocate of paragraph one and the shooter of the police report in paragraph two are one and the same person!
Our society often seems to be consistently inconsistent. From the advertising at the stadium urging fans, “Don’t Drink & Drive,” displayed just beneath the Budweiser logo, to the angry driver voicing obscene words and making obscene gestures while having a “Teach Your Children to Pray” bumper sticker on his car -- consistency is often hard to come by.
Even the great men and women of the Bible were not immune:
-Jonah preached a message of redemption to a lost nation and then pouted because they repented and were not destroyed.
-David would fight the Philistine giant to vindicate the name of Jehovah and then committed adultery and murder,
-Peter would preach salvation and hope to the Gentiles in Cornelius’ home and then refuse to eat with the Gentiles when in the company of Jewish brethren.
That’s a bit of struggle for all of us, isn’t it? We resolve at our baptism to “walk in newness of life” but give in occasionally to the life and practice that we promised to leave behind. We sing, “Have thine own way, Lord” but sometimes take great offense if our “own way” is not accommodated.
That, of course, is not what we want. We never want to be the ones of whom Paul spoke when he observed, “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him...” (TI 1:16)
The good news is, we’re not alone, this challenge and that type of inconsistency does not have to become the sum of who we are.
We can learn from the consistent steps of our perfect example (1 PT 2:21). We can be completely honest and transparent as we commune with an understanding Father in prayer and petition for help (HB 4:14,15). And we can employ our will and determination as competent, capable, committed Christians to live as we know we should.
The great news is, having done that, we can “have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 JN 2:28).
