To Thine Own Self Be True

Two men that i admire deny the existence of a Creator, and i have been reading what they have to say.  Their denial of the existence of God doesn't bother me, but those who noisily preach God's existence by insisting on a literal acceptance of the Biblical account of creation that denies the evidence of science do bother me.  The personal faith of the so-called Creationists and proponents of Intelligent Design doesn't upset me.  It is their insistence that any discussion of the evidence of science that contradicts their views is offensive.  Their intolerance and their campaign to force others to hear their views, the forced teaching of these views by those who don't accept them, is very disturbing to me.  

There are two basic beliefs of which i am convinced: first, that there is a Creator who is the ultimate cause of all that is, and second, that each of us is an immortal soul.  i don't seek evidence of the truth of these two beliefs; they are so much a part of me that to deny them would be to deny my very existence.  The fact that others are not convinced of these beliefs is not troubling to me.  Each of us must be faithful to the intuitions of our own hearts, and we are wrong to insist that others hear our views, much less be forced to transmit them to others.

As i prayed and meditated this morning, i read in the 18th chapter of John's gospel the account of Jesus being slapped by an official of the high priest when Jesus was brought before Annas.  My first reaction was, "How could someone have dared to slap this great and good person?"  As i prayed about the reading, i realized that every time i ignore a good that i could do for another i am in fact slapping Jesus.  On the other hand, every time i do good for another i am pouring oil on the feet of Jesus.  My responsibility, then, is to look for ways to pour oil on Jesus' feet and to be reminded that ignoring opportunities to do good injure Jesus again and again.

My prayer this morning is that we will be true to our own hearts and spend our day anointing the feet of Jesus.