‘Good for the Soul’

4/23/2019

I Was Thinking…

“The City of Atlanta says its employees didn’t do it and the builder of the West Highlands subdivision said it wasn’t them either.” This was the response to a baffled Matthew Miller when trying to discover who painted a crosswalk on his street that leads pedestrians directly into his northwest Atlanta driveway. Mr. Miller is concerned that it puts undue attention on his driveway and thus his home. (AJC, April 16, 2019)

That would be strange, would it not, to come home and find a ‘crosswalk’ painted to end at the center of your driveway? I get it. Mr. Miller is beyond frustrated.

The interesting phenomena in this somewhat ‘chuckling’ story (chuckling to everyone but the Miller family) is that no one seems to want to take responsibility for the painting of the crosswalk. Those who are entrusted with such work have denied their participation. And maybe they are innocent, but it feels a bit like “Whoops, we messed up. Let’s just deny it and maybe it will go away.”

Like Paul Harvey, maybe the Millers will discover the ‘rest of the story’ at some point. However, this story is emblematic of a common problem in our culture, world, church and humanity. Even our leadership (I’ll mention no names) seem to example for us the tactic of ‘deny, deny, shift blame, shift blame, take no responsibility, we might set a precedence, someone may sue us, I ain’t saying nothing’ kind of mentality’.

What happened to ‘confession is good for the soul’? I have found if we would admit our erroring ways, there is a world of grace (mostly) that would offer forgiveness and encouragement. But way too often we let our ‘tender egos’ direct our paths rather than ways of truth and integrity directing our paths. The result? Weeks, months, years of unnecessary stress and pain.

In this season of Resurrection, let’s be ‘Easter People’ who live by the ‘truth that sets us free’ even if it means there is momentary embarrassment over a miscue (moral or otherwise). Let’s show the world how this is done. Confession is good for the soul! Forgiveness is even better!

Let’s own our mistakes. Stop shifting the blame. Let’s be responsible citizens of the world…after all, aren’t citizens of heaven living by a ‘higher standard’?

I confess I laughed at the Miller family’s quandary. I pray they will forgive my pleasure at their expense. My soul feels better already.

Always Thinking,