Then look what he does. He picks up this hardship like a conductor’s baton. He uses it to lead the choir he has been teaching, mentoring, working and laboring for. “I urge you…walk worthy. Come along with me in the great cause of Christ. God has done immeasurable things on your behalf and will continue to do so. He has called you to a mighty, a living hope. Live worthy!”
Now swivel back to Smollet. He picked up his racism and sexuality as tools to advance his career, failed and ended up jailed. Shame has accrued to him, he has been cut from his $125,000-a-show role in Fox’s Empire, his bad choices will make it more difficult for future victims, and slapped those who would support him in the face.
The International News Service drilled an important phrase into Walter Cronkite: “Get it first, but first get it right.” Interestingly enough Al Sharpton held his peace having been burned back in 1987 through Tawana Brawley’s hoax. I expect that the Kamala Harris’ and Cody Bookers of the establishment will have a new skepticism toward the sudden stories that support their narrative on American culture.
No corner on goodness
No one is perfect, not even members of the victim class. That is an important thing for everyone to grasp. Incidentally, it is one espoused in the scriptures: “We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” There is an American narrative which states hate crimes are on the rise. Those who foster that vantage point would do well to recognize that. Neither victims nor perpetrators have a corner or goodness or evil. Our own personal view of the world needs to take this into account. Accounting it according to the scriptures shape is the best accounting.
No pivot toward relief
I see men under the sentence of wrongdoing week after week. Sometimes I will ask, “How long is your sentence?” These men know that answer. It is ready on their tongue; automatic; calculated; grasped. Many of these men will solicit my help in gaining this relief or that: a bottom bunk profile or a keyed lock; a dark glasses profile, contact lenses, or a quick transfer back to their home camp.
Paul does not do like they do. He seeks no relief from them. He does not say, “Tell the proconsul to write Nero and get me out of this hell hole.” Paul knows that he is already out of Hell’s hole. An unimaginable price was paid to secure his release and their’s. “Live worthy of that!” he writes to those on the outside.
If you are familiar with Paul’s letter to the Philippians, you may be able to recall a likeminded theme. He denied that he was looking for anything from that other congregation. “I am not looking for a gift,” he said. Here Paul was in jail not urging them to rescue him but urging him elsewhere: toward worthy living as God defines it.
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