Faith Venture

During this morning’s meditation the terms insensitivity, courtesy and justice presented themselves firmly into my consciousness. There is so much in the news and in my reading that centers on this topic. Groups of people seem to be totally insensitive to the dreams, desires and reverence of other groups of people. When I think of American politics, the words insensitive and belligerent constantly come to mind. When I do a small act of common courtesy for someone who just needs a little helping hand, they seem surprised that anyone would help.

Researching for an article on leadership I just wrote, over and over the first response about leadership advice was ethics and good character. Gary Hamel has a new “business book” out, “What Matters Now,” in which the first thing that matters are values. I’m about 1/3 through that book, but it is the most important book on business, leadership and professional development I’ll read this year.

Why must the many people I’m reading and talking with emphasize these issues? Maybe because we just aren’t treating people correctly. Do we segment our values on Sunday morning from our values during the rest of our life? Do we take a belligerent attitude toward others–“I’m going to force you to have good character by writing laws” attitude? That law-writing exercise worked so well before–not.

Paul writes to the Romans that the law was written so that we know right from wrong (even though he says earlier that even people who don’t have the law know what’s right and wrong because it’s written on their heart). What you need is the freedom that comes from accepting God’s grace. If you ever look at the fruits of the Spirit and consider them as a description of personality, you’d notice that they point to a way of life where you are sensitive to others, truly listen with concern, where you help them experience the joy and peace you have. What would happen if all of us who say we are Christian exhibited those traits?

That would be cool. Forget the acrimonious debates and just love one another. And treat everyone with courtesy.

This entry was posted on February 27, 2012 at 7:03 am and is filed under Ethics, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.