Some people have said they think my Christian behavior shows I am a good person. However, these people would be horribly wrong.
I’m not a good person, and I know it. I do try to be good, and I even want to be good. This reflects Christian behavior. Nevertheless, I’m not good. I’m not even a good person next to some, or even most, others. If you compare me to John Wayne Gacy or Hitler, I don’t look so bad. Still, if you could see the real me, you would never think I looked good.
I tend to have a foul mouth. If something injures, surprises, or disappoints me, my usual response is foul language. It was even worse when I had to deal with Atlanta traffic every day. I need to be slower to speak and more cautious with my words.
In Mark 10:18, Jesus says, “No one is good except God alone.”
I am human and a sinner.
Nevertheless, I know I will be forgiven when I fail, but I still need to try.
Yeah, I write books. I can string together more than a few sentences. I occasionally form coherent thoughts. Big deal.
I’m prouder of connecting with two churches in Pakistan that came from writing The God Conclusion than I am of actually writing The God Conclusion. But talking to churches via Zoom calls doesn’t make me a good person. Delivering a sermon I’m unqualified to give doesn’t make me a good person. The fact I just talked about having pride means I’m not a good person.
I don’t have an enormous ego. I know I’m not the greatest thing since sliced bread. But I also know I’m not stupid, and I tend to get annoyed when atheists act like I’m dumb. I shouldn’t respond to the provocation. God has blessed me with an intelligent mind. The ability to reason is a gift I put to good use, but wasted when I only want to win a mindless exchange of insults on social media. If I don’t have something better to do, I should.
My best argument for the existence of God relies on logic as much as it relies on scientific evidence.
When you apply elementary logic to scientific evidence, we know the universe had an origin because of the Big Bang. This means that life has not always existed. Therefore intelligence has not always existed. If God exists, the best explanation for intelligence is God.
Our intelligence stems from His intelligence.
Conversely, if there is no God, there is no logical explanation for the existence of intelligence. Under those circumstances, can we claim that intelligence really exists? Even if intelligence exists, why trust it if it comes from an unintelligent source? Inquiring minds want to know…
It’s a bit of a quandary for my atheist friends and critics. I do like to inspire others to think.
That brings me back to this morning. However, one of these atheist critics tried to get under my skin with a couple of childish insults. I don’t even remember what they were, to be honest. They were mixed in with several others with a similar tone. I was responding to each in the order Facebook presented them. I read a sarcastic or insulting comment and mostly responded in kind. Christian behavior would urge me to turn the other cheek.
Then one guy in particular kept trying to needle me. I took a glance at his profile and noticed he was living in France. Moreover, I used that knowledge to sneer and say I was glad I couldn’t smell him through the computer.
That was a truly unChristian thing for me to say. I am ashamed of myself, and I doubt I would believe it anyway. I am an arrogant, proud man with a sharp tongue and a quick temper.
For the record, the father of the patriarch of our family immigrated from France around the turn of the twentieth century. I look like a Frenchman because I’ve got a lot of French blood in me. Also, I worked for an international corporation with facilities in France. I personally met with our French counterparts. Apparently, most people in France don’t believe in showering every day. It’s just a custom, I suppose. Probably why the French invented perfume.
So, I kind of know what I’m talking about, from personal experience. After receiving a silly attempt to insult me, my reaction was to aim for the soft white underbelly. Or below the belt, take your pick. It was a cheap shot. One I should not have taken. I feel like I just beat up a little kid and stole his lunch money.
The best thing I could have done was to say something kind or wise. Something Jesus would say.
The next best thing I could have done was simply ignore the puerile jab and continue with my day. I have a book to write and I waste too much time on social media.
The worst thing I could have done was precisely what I chose to do. I gave back even worse than I received. I jumped into the mud puddle and wrestled with the pig. As a result, I got muddy. Maybe the pig enjoyed it, maybe not.
Don’t ask me what Jesus would do. I only know Jesus wouldn’t do what I did today.
Thank God for Romans 10:9.
[Author’s Note: This isn’t exactly what I originally wrote. The platform I use to produce this blog ran some sort of optimization tool that I was partially able to undo, but not completely. In the future, I won’t make the same mistake of allowing the tool to run.]
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