Rogue State of Heart

Posts Tagged ‘moral integrity’

When I hear of people claiming to be followers of Christ whom I respect admitting to extramarital affairs, I get a very stirred-up reaction. Actually, it’s a variety of emotions—sadness, disappointment, anger, and more. And with this particular episode of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, all of those came in spades.

I was immensely let down by a man whom I knew very little but respected from articles that I read about him turning out to be such a disappointment in some extremely important areas of his life.

I felt strongly for the state of his heart—what is the condition of his soul that would encourage him to repeatedly make destructive and hurtful choices over and over again?

I was angry that he’d break his vows, and put his wife through a tremendously public humiliation—and his sons through a bewildering series of painful life situations.

But I also felt something else: a very humbling sense of kinship.

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I found another nugget from Scot McKnight and The Jesus Creed in a story I had heard a long time ago, but was reminded of it’s centrality in my life even today.

It involved Ben Franklin, and his attempt at moral perfection. He reasoned that if he was intentional and purposeful about achieving moral virtue, over time it would just unfold and emerge in his life as he practiced each virtue and targeted it for growth in his life.

So he set about tracking his progress each day, evaluating how well or poorly he did with each virtue that he was focusing on. His conclusion after about a month or so of this effort?

“I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined.”

It was a rogue state of heart moment for Ben Franklin.

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