I read the most amazing thing today. I’ve read it before- maybe even hundreds or thousands of times. But today its meaning smacked me between the eyes.
It’s Psalm 23- at least part of it. The part where it talks about God leading us “in paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake…”.
Now the revelation I had today wasn’t my own original thought. I read it in a book and before I go on to share it, this is where I will credit my source and tell you, YOU GOTTA READ THIS BOOK! It’s by Donald Miller and its called, “Searching for God Knows What”. I’m not sure exactly what motivated him to write this book or who his “target audience” was when he wrote it, but for me it’s about getting to the guts of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus- what really matters once you strip away all the pretence and man-made extras…
So today I was reading the part where the author talks about morality, and why we need to be or should want to be moral or good. He points out that much of today’s modern evangelical version of morality stems from a desire to look good in the eyes of others, to look like we have no sin. But for WHAT? For our glory? So we can feel good about ourselves? So people can point us out in a crowd and say, “That guy is the most righteous person I know. He never breaks any commandments!” ???!!!
“He leads me in the path of righteousness, for HIS name’s sake…”!
We should desire to be good, moral creatures because we love the Jesus we follow and want to make Him look good!
If I am using a lot of exclamation marks it’s because, frankly, I am astounded that I’ve read this passage so many times and lived a so-called “Christian” existence for most of the last 29 years, and never before has this truth caught me upside the jaw like it has today!….!!!!!!!!!…!!!!!!…!!!
The whole reason we have this thing called morality or righteousness or good living, is because God loves us. And the whole reason we should want to be moral or righteous or good is because WE LOVE HIM!
Our religion, this thing called “Christianity” (which literally means “to be little copies of Christ”), is not about following rules and guidelines and feeling nothing much when we break them. It’s about having a relationship with a Living Being, and being heartbroken when we hurt him, just like we would be if we hurt anyone we love by doing something they don’t want us to do.
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Sounds like very good reading. I will be sure to keep an eye out for it next time I'm at the bookstore. And your points made were most excellent. Well done!
hi, thanks. i really wrote this as a devotional (check out the devo section- "the point about morality")and someone suggested i stick it in the book reviews too. i probably should have revamped it to fit the genre but oh well...! cheers
