Into the Fire

One would think being right is a good thing. The best thing. A productive thing. But it isn’t always. Sometimes being right produces nothing but wrongs. Maybe not in the big picture sense but in the immediate sense. The most obvious case is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The objective and insanity of the motives for putting him to death were wrong, but God made it right. Severe example and unequaled since it happened, but “right” nevertheless.

Let’s face it, who wants to be wrong? Who wants to suffer the consequences of his own inadequacy when making a decision that is wrong? Who desires to admit the embarrassment of a wrong move? No one I know. And certainly not me.

However, we all make errors in judgment, conduct, and confessions. As much as we would like to make all the right moves by considering all the angles and correctly deducing the appropriate way to go: it often or sometimes isn’t. Usually, for a Christian, we can recognize where our mental aerobics overwhelmed our spiritual insights and ascertain where we went wrong. Usually, it’s the flesh which guides us into wrong decision making. However, sometimes I think the Lord is quiet about our process of action to test our belief in what he can do with a faithful heart in spite of an impatient psyche.

In some cases we won’t learn whether or not our assumptions or consequential actions were right. The situation is left in our past, and we move on without resolution or condemnation from the results. We simply won’t know. In perhaps rare other circumstances we know beyond what we can adequately explain that we are right, but no one hears us or acts upon our suggestions. Yet we still know we’re right—for what it’s worth. Perhaps the only solace comes in the very act of knowing. Once in a great while someone will tell us we were right. For all the good it did. Still, there is a modicum of satisfaction in the realization that another person recognized we weren’t just foolin’ around.

I’m sure at some point in your lifetime you have met that person who is never wrong. Twisting excuses and bending reason, somehow they always turn out to be “right”. No one cares because they recognize the rationalizations and justifications which had to be severely manipulated to gain this “right” standing. No matter how much we might desire to be right, to be like these people is in no way desirable.

Get in enough painful situations where being right feels like you’re wrong, and pretty soon you take no joy in being right. You actually search for how you must be wrong, yet truthfully you know in your heart you’re not. But it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t feel good like it should.

The important thing about being right is that you couldn’t be wrong even when you might’ve preferred it. That’s when you really know the standard is secure no matter how uncomfortable or unpleasant. You won’t be shaken even when you don’t dance around broadcasting your correctness. No, instead you slip away silently. And you wonder to the Lord why it has to be this way sometimes . . .

Father, you bring beauty from ashes, you work all things together for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Thank you, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.