Righteousness vs. Rightness: The Dichotomous Nature of American Christianity

These past few weeks I have begun a more intentional prayer regimen where I keep a prayer journal and pray on it every four hours throughout the day. One of the impacts of this journal is that I seem to be adding to it throughout the day, not so much because of the requests of others, but in large part because my own needs are being revealed. One of the issues that made it onto my prayer list has to do with the issue of Rightness. I felt a dogged and persistent desire to make it know that I was right, and that another viewpoint was wrong. As you can imagine, this has made my marriage very entertaining at times. It has also caused me to be very judgmental toward certain sins. (homosexuality being one of them) As I surrender this area to the Holy Spirit, as is typical for me, I begin to make broader applications of this principle and my mind is immediately drawn to the image of the modern church. We as believers should all agree that we are called to Righteousness. According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, this takes place through the process of sanctification where the believer grows in the likeness of Christ. Only through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit can this process take place. Initially it takes place before and during salvation, but as Paul made very clear, it continues until our expiration date on earth. It is an amazing thing for a believer to strive toward righteousness, and it is something that is completely attainable through the Holy Spirit. The dichotomy exists, however, when we cease looking inward toward our own righteousness and focus instead on debating the rightness of the world around us. Sadly enough, the latter often seems the path most travelled. We are given numerous Biblical references as to who is the ruler of this current world. It is not a surprise, and our Almighty has even developed a plan for how to win the world back. Interestingly enough, it does not have much to do with projecting our values on the world, as much as it has to do with projecting the life of Jesus on the world. We as believers should be cautious about speedily sending out the emissaries of judgement, morality, and rightness to a lost world, while the lame and limping messenger of love arrives a day later, finding the doors to hearts and minds shut fast against him. This in no way abdicates the idea of an absolute truth, but what is does do is strip away the arrogance that tells me I can change the world without God. Yes, there are absolute truths that we hold. Yes, the world often holds the opposite of these truths. Yes, it can be frustrating at times. Yes, you were once in that same position, and no amount of projected rightness brought you closer to righteousness. Only the power of God and the work of the Holy Spirit brought you to the point where you began to pursue a different righteousness. How can we expect anything other than that in a lost world? So, before you go on a tirade about homosexuality,adultery,sexual impurity, greed, perversion, or any other deficits of righteousness that are rampant in America, look inward to your own righteousness. Pray with all your heart that those who are lost could be so blessed that the God of Heaven would reach down into their hearts and do for them what he did for you. Live in a way that shows the love and thankfulness that this salvation gives you. Send out emissaries of love and peace, keep the messengers of rightness, morality and judgment in the reserves. Allow the Holy Spirit to do His work. He will bring right with God. He will convict. He will change. He will bring His righteousness. May we all pray to this end.