Chaplain’s Corner: LXXXIV

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“You Are the Salt of the Earth”

The Jesus following life doesn’t begin with a list of “you ought to be’s.” It starts
with the words “you are.” This is a big deal. People are typically prepared to hear
a track coach or military general or even a Bible waving preacher set out the
territory urging us to become one or be conquered. “Here’s what you’re going to
have to do, and it’s not going to be easy.” We are used to being challenged to
become what we should be.

But Jesus comes at things from the other direction. Before He tells us what to do,
He tells us who we are. Rather than urging us to become what we ought to be, He
simply states we should be what we already are.

According to the Sermon on the Mount, if you’ve thrown in your lot with Christ,
you are exactly what the world needs. But since modern Americans have become
anxious about their sodium intake, is it really a happy thing to be identified as
salt? It is indeed. When Jesus’ original listeners heard him say they were the salt
of the earth, as many as five things might have come to mind.

First, salt was a symbol of Purity. The salt crystals that we shake onto our green
beans are almost totally intermingled with other compounds. Salt was valuable
enough in the ancient world to be used as a form of payment. To this day someone
might say, “He’s worth his salt.” The word salary itself is directly related to those
little crystals.

Second, Jesus’ mention of salt connoted Flavoring. Salt provided seasoning in a
nearly spice-free diet. Salt makes almost everything taste better. We are meant to
be the spice that flavors society; that takes the edge of the world in which we live
and bring joy and pleasure and a heightened sense of taste wherever we go.

Third, salt was the finest Preservative known in the ancient world. Salt kept good
food from going bad. Salt was just about the only way to keep meat and fish safe to
eat.

Fourth, salt as known to advance Healing. Most of us have experienced that
momentary sting, but then the soothing comfort, of plunging a skin wound into a
saline solution like the ocean.

Finally, salt Kills. Those of us who live in a part of the world where streets are
routinely salted during the winter months are aware sodium chloride’s ability to
help melt snow and ice- and to leave behind a “death zone” where weeds and grass
will struggle to grow next spring.

Purity, Flavoring, Preserving, Healing and Cleansing. That’s what it means to be
the salt of the earth. The problem is that we’re not much good to the earth if we
spend most of our hours inside a salt container-even a beautiful one like a church
sanctuary or a cozy spot in your apartment where you can read or watch TV.

Our grandparents called their little bottles of seasoning “salt cellars.” We
must get out of the cellar and into a salt shaker-into any ministry or relationship
that challenges us to do what we’ve always been called to do.

Our call is to be a healing, cleansing, preserving and flavoring presence wherever
we go. Jesus, after all, would definitely be the first person to say, “Please pass the
salt!”

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXXIII

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“Loving Our Enemies”

On May 7, 1915, some nine months after the start of World War I, a German U
boat torpedoed the passenger liner Lusitania as it sailed in neutral waters off the
southern coast of Ireland. The ship vanished in just 18 minutes. Nearly 1200
passengers died. A third of the victims were women and children and 128 of those
who were lost were Americans. Since the United States wasn’t a combatant in the
war-that wouldn’t happen for two more years-Americans were outraged.

It didn’t help that Germany made the outrageous decision to declare a national
holiday to celebrate the sinking of the passenger ship that couldn’t fight back.

All of a sudden, as social historian Bill Bryson documents in his book One Summer,
it was dangerous to be a German in America. A German man in St. Louis was
hanged by a mob because he spoke out about America. German businesses were
boycotted. Restaurants stopped serving German food. Sauerkraut famously
became liberty cabbage. Some communities made it illegal to play German music.
Iowa outlawed conversations in any language other than English in schools, at
church or even the telephone. There is no use in anyone wasting time praying in
any language other than English the Governor of Iowa stated.

That would come as new to St. Augustine, who prayed in Latin; to Watchman Nee
who prayed in Chinese; to Pope Francis who regularly prays in his native Spanish
and to Jesus who talked to his heavenly Father on a daily basis in Hebrew or
Aramaic.

Aside from the important lesson of not looking to elected officials for theological
pointers, this impassioned chapter in American history reminds us of something
profound. Jesus calls us not to blast our enemies, but to love them.

Praying for those who misunderstand and hurt us is at the core of Jesus’ Sermon
on the Mount. This is one of the most counterintuitive choices for human beings of
every generation.

Where do we even start?

If you are hoping to make a New Year’s resolution that will fundamentally change
your life, ask God for the grace to pray at least once a day in 2022 the hardest
prayer.

Pray for that family member who snubbed you at Christmas. Pray for the military
leaders, Presidents and common soldiers who are glaring at each other across the
country of Russia and Ukraine.

You cannot possibly do these things in your own strength. But if you ask Him, God
will put his own love into your heart. You can be sure that God will be listening to
all such requests. In every language!

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXXII

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“Good News”

Imagine that you have a child who is battling cancer.  It’s as if a shadow has fallen over your life. Everything seems surreal.  It’s hard to eat or sleep.  Little things that used to bring joy now seem meaningless.

As you sit in a hospital waiting room a friend offers advice.  He’s just read about a new experimental therapy.  Perhaps you should give it a try.  And some people are having great luck reducing pain with hypnosis.  And have you tried megavitamins?  At that moment your child’s surgeon enters the room.  She takes your hand.  “The surgery went far better than we imagined.  We have every reason to believe the cancer is gone.  YOUR CHILD IS GOING TO LIVE.”

Moments like that change your life forever.

As author and Pastor Tim Keller points out in his book Hidden Christmas, there’s a world of difference between good advice and good news.  Many people think of Christianity as a list of heavenly suggestions.  Jesus is a life coach who offers take- it-or-leave-it recommendations for finding happiness and meaning.

But from the very beginning the Jesus story isn’t advice. It’s news.  It’s not the recitation of a few things that you ought to try to make happen, but the announcement of something that God has already made happen.

Consider the words of the Angel of the Lord-backed up by a “great company of heavenly host”-to the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem:  “Do not be afraid.  I bring you Good News that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.”  (Luke 2:10-11)

It’s worth pausing to note that there are several kinds of angels described in Scripture-supernatural beings who exist to serve God.  There are Seraphim and Cherubim.  And there are other verses in the Old and New Testaments that describe “ordinary angels.”  What do “ordinary angels” do and look like?  Many people are surprised to learn that angels, as portrayed in the Bible, do not have wings.  Most appear as young men.  They occasionally assist God’s people-helping Lot and his family hightail it out of Sodom in the book of Genesis, and breaking Peter out of Jail in the Book of Acts.

But their chief task is embodied in their name.  Angelos is the Greek word for “messenger.”  An angel’s job is to bring news from God.  In the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke angels appear six times.  They almost always inspire terror.

You may have already have unknowingly been in the presence of one of God’s supernatural messengers, as suggested by Hebrews 13:2:  “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

So why don’t we get to experience extraordinary angelic press conferences like those associated with Jesus’ birth?  The answer is that God’s good news, declared twenty centuries ago by his supernatural messengers hasn’t changed. Anyone afflicted by hopelessness, fear or despair doesn’t need good advice.  There’s more than enough of that going around already.  But all of us hunger for moments in which we truly grasp that God has already accomplished everything we need in order to be the people God has called us to be.

Moments like that change your life forever.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXXI

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“Joseph”

In the story of Jesus, Joseph is a bit like the father of the bride at a wedding.  He’s prominent at
the beginning.  Then he disappears.  But in the end he has to pay for everything.

We know very little about the man who assumed the role of Jesus’ Father.  Aside from several
key anecdotes associated with Jesus’ birth, we see him only once more in the Gospel accounts- when Jesus at the age of 12 is engaging some of Israel’s teachers in a theological bull session.  He is identified in several texts as “Joseph the carpenter,” a trade which he apparently taught his son.  The word translated “carpenter”-tekton- is at the root of our modern word “technology,” and describes someone who could work with both wood and stone.

Since Mary always appears alone during the accounts of Jesus’ adult ministry, it has long been
assumed that she was widowed by the time her son turned 30. What happened to Joseph?  No one can say.  What was he like as a father and what kind of child was Jesus?  Those questions proved to be so interesting to the early church that a few creative authors couldn’t resist the temptation to invent fanciful stories.  Some of them appear in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a spurious document that was written at least 150 years after Jesus’ birth and certainly not by the Apostle Thomas.  In other “childhood narratives, “Jesus makes birds out of mud, claps his hands and brings them to life-something that genuinely impresses his playmates. The early church, to its credit, recognized that such stories were
absurdly out of character with everything we know about Jesus.

The History of Joseph the Carpenter, another document of dubious validity suggests Joseph
was a whopping 90 years old when he became engaged to Mary, and was a widower with six
grown children.  Italian Renaissance painters occasionally portrayed him as an old man
cradling his new born son.  These artists and authors seemed to think that Joseph needed to
be more like a grandfather to Mary than a young husband-someone old enough and wise
enough to take care of a vulnerable wife and child.

If Joseph was typical of other young men in Israel, he was 16-18 years old at the time of
engagement to Mary.  He must have been devastated by the news of her pregnancy.  The Bible
reports his response in a single poignant sentence:  “Joseph, being a righteous man and
unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” (Matt.1:19).  But
when an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, he did what the Angel commanded
him. That is prompt, simple unspectacular obedience. It is fascinating that Joseph never speaks in any of the gospel accounts.  He silently does what is right.  He chooses to come alongside Mary and endure what will undoubtedly be a lifetime of public misunderstanding.  He will not leave her alone in an impossible situation. One word comes to mind when I think of Joseph:  Faithful.

Like Joseph, we can be good and faithful servants.  Let it be said of us what has been said of
Joseph for twenty centuries:  He simply did what God commanded him.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXX

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“Knowing”

Years ago, at the Christmas Eve service where I was preaching, there was an unexpected
visitor.  Just as I was diving into my opening paragraph, a rather large spider-big enough to be
seen from the back of the sanctuary-lowered itself from the ceiling on a thread and dangled just
a few feet from the left side of my head.

Incredibly, I never saw it.

I was feeling encouraged about the sermon because people genuinely seemed to be paying
attention.  Actually, as I learned later, they were transfixed by the spider.

I like to walk around sometimes when I preach.  What would happen if I turned left and walked
right into it?  People were waiting breathlessly.  Not one of my so-called friends chose to alert
me to our guest.  Several children even named the spider:  Charlotte, of course.

Just before the sermon ended, the spider apparently concluded I was finally going to wrap
things up.  It zinged back up to the ceiling and was never seen again.  At the door following the
service, no one was talking about my beautifully crafted message.  Everyone was talking about
the spider.  I did not see it.

How is it that hundreds of people know that a spider was dangling from the ceiling, whereas I,
the person who was closest to it, didn’t see it at all?  It was simply a matter of degrees.  If I had
turned just five more degrees, I would have seen everything.

That’s a little bit like God.  God often hides in plain sight-only a few degrees from our line of
vision.  The frustration of knowing a little something about God, but definitely not everything, is
on display in the opening story of the Gospel of Luke.  Before Luke describes the birth of
Jesus, he introduces his readers to an elderly couple named Elizabeth and Zechariah, who is a
priest.  They genuinely love God.  “Both were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the
Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” (Luke 1:6)

But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very
old.  In a culture that regards offspring as the chief sign of God’s blessing, Zechariah and
Elizabeth feel unblessed.  Their dreams of starting a family are dead.  Then something
amazing happens.  Zechariah is stunned by the sudden appearance of an angel of the Lord
who informs him that at long last he is going to become a dad.  Zechariah literally can’t believe
it.

“How will I KNOW that this is so?” he asks the angel.  Zechariah is exactly like us.  He isn’t
visited by angels every day.  He simply wants to KNOW:  Is God in the middle of this, even
though I can’t see it?

But we rarely know what God is up to, even when it is happening.  God asks us to trust him-this
God who is just a few degrees out of sight.

For Zechariah and Elizabeth, everything changes.  They become parents of a little boy who will
grow up to be John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin and ministry forerunner.

And how about us?  The God who hides in plain sight speaks through small events we might
not otherwise recognize:  a phone call that catches us off guard; a new friend we come to know
here at Westminster Village; a sentence in a book that causes us to hope again.  God, where
are you?  Why can’t I KNOW what you’re doing?  That is the cry of the human heart.
But God is not deaf to our cries.  And Christmas is our reminder God is not far away.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXIX

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“Advent”

Last Sunday (November 28th) was the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the church season that annually encompasses the four Sundays before Christmas Eve. Advent is derived from the Latin word adventum, which means “coming.” Each year followers of Jesus are encouraged to ponder the meaning of the Messiah’s coming into the world.

So what might that look like?

In Scripture, the arrival of Jesus is frequently linked with these words from the prophet Isaiah: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up; every mountain and hill made low; the rough places shall become level, and the rugged places a plain.” (Isaiah 40:3-4)

People in the ancient world knew exactly what those words meant.

When a King was coming to visit a community-quite likely a once-in-a-lifetime honor for its residents-lavish preparations had to be made. Think of the special efforts of cooking and cleaning that many undertake for the holidays and multiply it by a factor of 100. All obstacles on the King’s path had to be removed. Rocks were pushed back. Rough places were patched. Sometimes even “mountains” were made low-that is, special paths for the King’s litter were cut through difficult terrain.

That’s our call for Christmas. We need to prepare the way for Christ’s arrival into our personal worlds.

The rocks or obstacles, in our own lives need to be set aside and the rough places made smooth. What might that mean?

Perhaps between now and December 25th the best spiritual preparation we can undertake is to turn down the noise. Watch less TV. Be quiet. Choose a new relationship here at Westminster Village and make a new friend.

Reflect in new ways on the meaning of God becoming a human being. Above all, claim some moments of stillness in the midst of the frenzy that so often dominates December.

In other words, “Be still and know that God is God” (Psalm 46:10).

In big ways and small ways, “Prepare the Way of the Lord.”

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXVIII

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“Waiting”

In the New Testament, Peter writes that for the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day.

One fellow pondered the meaning of that and said, “Lord is it really true that a thousand years to us are like a minute to you?” God answered, “Yes, that’s true.’ The man then said, “So a million dollars to us is like a penny to you?” “Exactly right, “said God. Whereupon the man asked, “Lord could I have just one of those pennies?” “Sure,” said God. “Could you wait here for just one minute?”

We all want the penny, but we’re not so excited about the minute. We’re pumped about God receiving God’s riches. But God’s timing can seem flat out frustrating.

Nevertheless, what God accomplishes in us while we wait is often just as important as what we are waiting for. Waiting demands more than just patience. It requires humility. When we are compelled to wait, we come face to face with the fact we are not in control.

As author and pastor John Ortberg points out, “In American society there is a direct correlation between status and waiting. The higher your status, the less you have to wait. Lower status people always wait on higher-status people.

If you think you’re someone special try going out to the BMV and demanding to have your license renewed immediately. What you will hear is, “Take a number and wait your turn.” The BMV is a great place to receive a refresher course in humility. So is the waiting room of a medical practice. Ortberg knows of a busy CEO who was so frustrated at having to wait that he actually sent the doctor a bill for his time.

But waiting is good for us. It is a hard gift. But it is a gift nonetheless. That’s because what we wait for is more important than what happens to us while we are waiting. Isaiah, the prophet declares, “Even your youths will faint and be weary, and the young fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:30-31)

All of us need to be reminded not to give up, even when we’ve been waiting a long time.

In 1941, Winston Churchill gave a speech after the nation had survived months of restless bombing by the German aircraft. The speech was just 47 words long: “This is the lesson, never give in, never give in, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty-never give in except in convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force, never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” He then sat down.

Historians wonder, how many boys were forever impacted by those words and in all likelihood came surging back during the most dispiriting moments of their lives?

Hope plus courage equals perseverance.

We wait for God to work in our lives. We hang on to our trust in him even in the face of uncertainty.

If we never, never surrender that conviction, we’ll be ready to follow him no matter where God chooses to lead.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXVII

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“The Grip of God”

Lillie Baltrip was one of the finest school bus drivers in Houston, Texas. In the spring of 1988 her school district took note of her spotless, accident-free record and announced that she would receive along with 29 others, a special safety award. Lillie was even chosen by her fellow recipients to chauffeur the whole group in a school bus to the ceremony.

You’ve probably already guessed where this is going.

On the way to the awards ceremony, Lillie turned a corner too sharply. The bus flipped over on its side. She and sixteen others had to be taken to the hospital for minor emergency treatment. Worse still, the awards committee changed its mind and withdrew Lillie’s medal of honor. A lifetime of perfect performance was wiped out by one lousy turn.

There lurks in many of us the dark suspicion that everything we have achieved so far, everything that could ever be credited to our account, might be wiped out if we blow it just one more time. Is that something followers of Jesus need to worry about?

Over the course of history, two schools of thought have emerged. The first supported by about a dozen Scripture texts insists that salvation is fragile. It must be handled with care. God is on the side of the Houston School Board. We must not slip. One serious mistake can have eternal consequences. Unsurprisingly, those who embrace this perspective tend to be anxious about spiritual security.

The other school of thought (supported by more than 100 Scripture texts) insists that authentic connection with God is resilient. It can weather life’s storms, not to mention category five human screw-ups. According to this view, a relationship with God is not a contractual arrangement subject to annulment if one side fails to meet the minimum performance requirements, but a covenant-something akin to family ties.

As the poet Robert Frost put it, “Home is the place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

Those who endorse the second school of thought believe that those who say Yes to Jesus can always knock on God’s door-and he will always say, “Welcome home.” But what about those dozen scary verses that warn us we must never fail to take God seriously?

Bible study does not come down to arithmetic. Since there are 100 verses on one side and 12 on the other side, let’s just go with the bigger number. Instead we need to find out how to understand the smaller number of texts without negating their meaning or power.

Any discussion of “eternal security” begins with what Jesus said in the Gospel of John: “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. (10:27-29)

In the end, do we hold on to God or does God hold on to us?

If staying in God’s grip comes down to perfect performance-if all is lost through mere negligence or momentary carelessness or the spiritual equivalent of tipping the school bus over on the way to the awards ceremony-then all of us are toast.

God will have to hold on to us. According to this text, that is exactly what God promises to do. For years I agonized over whether I had somehow disqualified myself from walking with God. Had I sinned too often or failed to do the right thing or succumbed to too many doubts? A mentor warmly reminded me, “If you even care about that question you still have a heart for God. And because he is your Heavenly Father, he will always have a heart for you.”

We can go home again. Even now. Lillie Baltrip, for her part, might suggest we walk instead of drive.

Faithfully, Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXVI

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“Do You Believe in God’s Providence?”

Life is full of close calls. I can look back over my life and see the hand of God in many things that happened to me that I would consider “close calls”. Over the years I have wondered to myself-“were these happenings circumstances or was there a divine hand at work?”

When I had just started seminary at Princeton, our daughter was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. The hospital expenses were beyond the means of a seminary student and the equipment for her care would cost thousands of dollars more. I would have to withdraw from school and get a job if we were to survive as a family. One day after chapel, the President called my name and asked me to come to his office. I knew my studies were in good shape. What could he want? He said that he knew of our situation and that there was a person that would forever be anonymous that wanted me to finish my studies for the ministry and all our expenses were now paid in full. A stranger! When I look back on over 50 years of ordained ministry I realize I am indebted to a stranger for my career. What a close call! Who knows where I would be today if not for this providential hand of God in my life at an early stage?

I loved mission work! In my ministry I was fortunate to lead mission trips to Haiti, The Yucatan of Mexico, Honduras and Croatia. We made over 40 trips total. During one of my 5 trips to Haiti, we were in a bus in the mountains above Port a Prince when our bus rolled down the mountain, rolling over three times. The bus was stopped when it hit the only boulder on the mountainside just 50 yards from a 4000 ft. drop off. No one was killed but we were badly injured. To have hit this boulder at just the right angle and to roll down at just the exact spot seemed like a miracle. Was it just a circumstance? Coincidence? Or was there a providential hand of God at work?

There are those that would say to think of these experiences as anything but just “good luck” is foolish. But for Christians we see things through the lens of faith.

When I was diagnosed with bladder cancer 15 years ago the surgeon said “If we had not found this for three months, there would have been nothing we could do and you would be dead in a matter of weeks.” The circumstances that led to this discovery at an early stage was nothing short of a miracle. I am grateful every day of my life for what I see as the hand of God again in my life. Close call? You bet!

Of course I am aware of loved ones and friends who died in accidents, of cancer, heart disease, war and natural disasters. Was God not concerned for them? Why do bad things happen to good people and not to others? That is a mystery I do not have answers for in this life. But I still believe in Providence-that God’s hand is at work in our lives.

Think about the myriad of close calls that have been a part of your life-including the ones that you know absolutely nothing about. Do they mean something? Are they just lucky breaks or providential interventions? How can we possibly know?

God knows. The biblical doctrine of providence comes from the Latin words pro (before and video (to see). God sees everything in advance. What Scripture tells us is that there are no trivial happenings. God is fully attentive at every moment. Psalm 34:7 reminds us: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”

You are alive right now because God has preserved you through every close call. The best advice we could possibly heed with regard to finding security is, “Take hold of God with all your heart and never let go–confident that God will never let go of you.”

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: LXXV

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“Do Your Outsides Match Your Insides?”

Several years ago hundreds of physicians and researchers gathered for the convention of the American Heart Association in Atlanta. They were meeting to discuss, among other things, the importance of a low-fat diet for cardiac health. Observers pointed out, however, that their rate of consumption of fat-filled fast foods was almost identical to that of other conventions.

One cardiologist, in the convention center food court was asked if the bacon cheeseburger he was holding was setting a bad example. “I’m not setting a bad example,” he said. “I took my nametag off.”

When it comes to character, we cannot check in and check out of our true identity. That’s because whatever our nametags happen to say (or not say), our behavior always reveals what we really believe.

Across the entire spectrum of his teachings, for whom did Jesus reserve his harshest remarks? The answer is religious hypocrites. The word Hypocrite is a Greek word that originally referred to the mask worn by an actor during a play. Gradually it came to refer to anyone who was acting-specifically, anyone pretending to be one thing, while in truth being something else altogether.

During the first century the Pharisees had become people whose spiritual nametags said one thing, but whose hearts were in a different time zone. Our best guess is that there were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel (all of them males) when Jesus was teaching. The word “Pharisee” probably meant “set apart ones”-for they considered themselves the brightest bulbs in the spiritual chandelier. These were serious people-serious about pleasing God.

The Pharisees lumped themselves together into seven categories. Some were called “Shoulder Pharisees” which meant they wore their good deeds on their shoulders so you could always see their scorecards. There were the “Bleeding Pharisees”, men so committed to banishing lustful thoughts from their imaginations that they routinely walked into buildings, pillars, and various objects so as not to cast a single glance at the body (or even the face) of a passing woman. There were the “Tumbling Pharisees.” They got their name because they imagined themselves to be so humble that they refused to lift their feet above the ground.

Not all the Pharisees were such divas. Most were sincerely committed to doing God’s will. But in Matthew 23 Jesus has had enough. Seven times he shout at them: “You hypocrites!”

The Pharisees had flunked their own spiritual litmus tests. Although they couldn’t or wouldn’t live according to their own preaching, they pretended to be the valedictorians of God’s university.

The call of Jesus is that our outsides must always match our insides. That won’t happen by taking off our nametags to hide our contradictions.

We’ll know we’re on the right path when we choose to be outwardly humble-because inwardly we know we have a lot to be humble about.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain