My dear friend and mentor, Dr. Joe Henry Hankins used to say, “None of us are as spiritual as we like to think we are.” That is why we loathe crisis situations. Contrary to some people’s thinking, a crisis does not make the person; but rather, it reveals the person.
We’re prone to think more highly of ourselves than we actually are. Many of us go around drunk on self-esteem most of the time. But if God pulled back the shades of our hearts, showing us what is hidden therein, we would all be recluses.
Peter thought, like some of us, that he was a little better, and different from his brethren. But found to his chagrin, he was like the rest of his crowd. His problem was thinking “all men” could, but, never “him.” We need to be careful in thinking what we will, or will not, do (1Cor.10:12).
For those among us who have come to realize the frailty of the flesh through some humiliating experience, I quote the scholarly, yet humble, C.S. Lewis: “One falls so often that it hardly seems worth while picking oneself up and going through the farce of starting over again as if you could ever hope to walk. Still, this seemingly absurdity is the only sensible thing I do, so I must continue it.”
Christian living must be founded upon self-abhorrence and self-distrust because of indwelling sin. (J.I. Packer)
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