Israel
cries out to me,
“O
our God, we acknowledge you!”
But
Israel has rejected what is good;
an
enemy will pursue him. (Hosea 8:2-3)
Despite professions of loyalty to God, are you “rejecting what is good” with (a) Spouse? (b) Family? (c) Business? (d) Money? (e) Leisure? How might errors in these areas lead to addiction or idolatry? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1250).
The
failings and frailties that marked the personality and character of
Hitler should be very instructive for us. When stripped of all the
hoopla, Hitler was a man who had an inveterate belief that he was a
cut above all the rest of mankind. Those he gathered around him as
chums had the same passionate conviction – the same passionate
affliction.
I
have heard tell (even today) that there are those among us with this
same affliction. Since it arises from human nature, the disease is no
doubt not a respecter of person or class. Yet, today’s discussion
centered on the privileged – the movers and shakers within a
community. It was averred, unbelievably, that there are those who
rise to the top not from any blessings they have bestowed upon
humanity, but from a merciless drive to express their impelling
conviction that they represent supreme superiority over the
“run-of-the-mill” productions of childbirth. It represents
exceptionalism perverted by arrogance, avarice, and lust for
power—but even more basically, by the urgent need to win at all
cost, whether deviously or by shamelessly displayed
treachery—thus proving to themselves and, in their belief, to
others that their conviction of superiority is well-founded and
rises to the level of validated truth—a vindication born of
vindictiveness.
Being
a long ways from hobnobbing with the powerful, I cannot attest to the
truth of this observation. But if there is any truth to it, it is
certainly a chilling thought that such freak shows of nature actually
exist.
Print Page
