Complete Failure

Complete Failure

The headline of the newspaper read, “Complete Failure.”  They reported on the investigation into the Sandusky child abuse issues at Penn State and the complicity of several influential leaders at the university in a plan to protect the offender and the school with a cover-up. It’s a tragic story with no real winners. The boys, now young men, who were victims of Sandusky’s sins still carry the emotional scars. A legendary coach, now dead, will have years of service footnoted with this scandal.

Integrity got lost to expedience! The leaders made their choices based on what seemed best for the few at the moment rather than on the principles of what is right. Now, before we get too self-righteous, let’s remember that we’re all tempted to walk this path. We can get very worked up over another’s sins while at the same moment excusing our own as ‘common human failure.’  A divorced single mother told me about hearing her former husband, who had been an invisible, absent father, going on at length about how the men’s ministry he led at his church was ‘really focused on encouraging men in their roles as Dad.’  Sam was oblivious to the irony! His actions are, sadly, more the rule than the exception.

Jesus told a story about this that I believe He meant to be humorous. "Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." (Luke 6:41-42, NLT) Jesus was not excusing us from dealing with our sins. Some reach this mistaken conclusion from his remarks – “Don’t worry, we’re all sinners.”  That’s not the point. “Deal with your own sin first!” is what He’s saying.

A person that is principled and committed to integrity is not always beloved. Some will call him ‘rigid.’ Others will avoid him, feeling the sting of conscience just because of his powerful example. “Let your light shine,” Jesus said, “and other will praise your Father in Heaven.” (Matt. 5:15)  When we are loving and approach others with compassion, holiness is beautiful. If we are judgmental, critical of those who fail, we become religious irritants; like the Pharisees who earned such scorn even from the Lord.

May our prayer be, ‘Change my heart, O God. Let me walk with you ready to quickly respond to Your Spirit, ready to deal my own sins first, so that my life gives light to those who still walk in the dark. Lord, guide me to walk in integrity, not guided by mere convenience, but committed to the principles of the Word.’

Here’s a word from the Word.
"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." (Psalm 96:8-13, NIV)