Thought of the Day 10.01.08

Confusion about opposites is the source of many problems in life because we end up fighting the wrong things. For instance, courage doesn’t come from eliminating fear, but from mastering it. Likewise, intimacy doesn’t come from suppressing disagreement, but wisely navigating it.

But perhaps the greatest illustration of this error is in the realm of theology. Those of us who recognize God as God often mistakenly think the opposite of godliness is devil-worship. Since we certainly don’t do that, we think we must be fine.

Yet in reality, the opposite of serving God isn’t serving the Devil, but serving ourselves. That’s because the greatest of all devils isn’t Lucifer or Satan, but us. So being self-serving IS to engage in devil-worship. And we’ll forever mistakenly believe we’re fine until we realize that all along we’ve been avoiding the wrong opposite.