CC 06: How Not To Practice Your Faith

As I was talking to one of my friends in the ministry, he began to describe an experience he had where he worked with a preacher who was fairly well know as being an incredibly dynamic speaker, wonderful teacher, and even accomplished scholar. He talked about how excited he was to meet this guy because he had admired him for so long from afar. However, when he met him up close, things didn’t look so good. The man was difficult, cranky, and a “diva.” All in all, very un-jesus like in his conduct. He ended the unfortunate tale with “Well you know what they say, DDDW.” I had never heard of this acronym and asked for an explanation and he stated it meant “Darkness and Distance Does Wonders!” 

What I took from this story, was that all of us, even those we think can do no wrong, project an image of ourselves that we want people to see. And from far away, this picture looks good to those around us. But when the layers are removed and we have to interact up close and personal, our true colors come through. This week, we are studying a section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus calls out this attitude. Are you being seen doing good works, or doing good works to be seen?