It Does Make a Difference
The country band was playing, the music blaring and these words came over the speakers, “…there’s a little bit of bad in every good….there’s a little bit of wrong in every right…there’s a little bit of me in you.”
I forget exactly where I heard these lines, some television program I imagine. They went something like this, “…I thank the man upstairs that there’s still a little dishonesty in the world.”
We certainly are living in confusing times. It’s hard to tell the good guys and gals from the bad guys and gals, consequently the good from the bad. As expressed in these television lines and in these country music lyrics the notions today in the bad, wrong, and dishonest are not only acceptable, but are even desirable.
Of course, this is not new nor did our generation invent this. It’s an old philosophy revised with modern dress, “the end justifies the means.” As long as you reach the objective it doesn’t matter how you get there, just as long as you get there. The crowd will cheer, the rewards will be great and you will be a hero. And all the “minor” indiscretions will be overlooked if you are successful. Sounds too good to be true. Precisely, it is neither good nor true!
CONSIDER, the end never justifies the means if the “means” is deceit, dishonesty, revenge “Rambo” style, or the plain old bad. It does make all the difference how we get to the end. The end is given its worth by how it is reached. Paul wrote, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He reached the end by keeping the faith.
That is the end we seek after and the means of getting there.
Jesus says it the best, “For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul.”
Rev. Wendell Mettey
1/6/2014
