Worse or Best?

In reading Billy Graham today, he points out a human irony that is too painfully true. We humans often have a way of rejecting the best and embracing the worse. Do not get me wrong, I realize and greatly appreciate our human quality to embrace goodness as well, such as how the sports and media embraced the tragic accident of Louisville's basketball player Kevin Ware, supporting him and allowing his true character to shine.


It seems to me, and I can say this as I reflect on my own life story, that as we dumb down our moral code and accept more of the world's moral code, and dare I say the media's moral code, we allow more of the worse in life to become more of our normal, and unfortunately, the worse overshadows the best and redefines what is the best.

We do it in simple ways, in ways we can all look inward to see. We accept language that we once found offensive as acceptable. We allow our eyes to feed our souls what should never be allowed to enter, what we tell our kids and teens they should not be watching and ingesting. We can realize that if we eat a pound of chocolate a day we will gain massive weight and become physically unhealthy and at the same time, we intellectualize that we can feed our souls filth and moral depravity and it will not make us emotionally and spiritually bankrupt. Much of Hollywood yells at us to be open minded, to allow the government to control our lives, to embrace their moral code, to become more like their definition of what is good and just. We allow the world to seep into our minds and we slowly redefine our belief systems into something that pulls us from our foundational roots.

Scripture tells us that, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked". We can look to Calvary to see the truth of this statement. The crowd embraces the worst of humanity and yells for the release of Barabbas, putting to death the best of mankind, Jesus of Nazareth. And to this day, the goodness of Jesus continues to be a rebuke to our badness. As Billy Graham writes, "His purity still shows up our impurities; His sinlessness still reveals our sinfulness; and unless we allow Him to destroy the evil within us, the evil within us still wants to destroy Him. This is the conflict of the ages".

I understand the ease of slowly allowing the world to define the best for us. I understand the process of intellectualization, rationalization, minimization, and all the other "ation's" floating down the river of denial. I also understand the slowly chipping away of our soul when we allow the worse to drive us from the best, from our Christ, from our Creator. Feed your soul well, see the best through the eyes of the one who defines best, and begin to leave the worse behind.

(The writings in this post are random thoughts and observations and are NEVER intended as professional or personal advice. Take what works and leave the rest. For information on mental health and/or substance abuse help, visit http://www.rodneyvalandra.com and refer to the links page.)

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