Thought of the Day 04.29.10

At the video store this morning, I had to drive around a shopping cart that someone had left in the way. It obviously wasn’t my fault it was there, but I also knew that its being there would annoy other drivers until someone decided to move it. Well, why not me?

Once I had it on the sidewalk, I was then torn whether to wheel it a couple hundred extra feet to one of the grocery cart returns. Realizing that someone would eventually have to do this, I volunteered again. In the end, tidying up someone else’s mess cost me about three minutes of time. That’s when it struck me just how radical Christian morality is.

See, basic immorality is neglecting your personal responsibilities, and basic morality is taking care of them. But Christian morality is taking care of other people’s responsibilities…because you can and because they need you to…just like Jesus did for us.

And if this is right, then the real evil in this world isn’t neglecting our own responsibilities. The real evil is labeling such a pathetically low standard as righteousness.