Wednesday; April 23

As a baseball fan, I feel like I know a lot about the game.  I have been around it for a long time and have invested a lot effort in learning some of the nuances of the sport.  Because of this, I am pretty hard on those who are professional ballplayers.  I figure if they are making that much money, I tend to hold them to a higher threshold.  Now, while I can justify my criticism, I have to admit that there is no way I could live up to my own expectations.  There is no way I could do what they do – much less what I expect them to do!  I guess this would make me an armchair expert.

The reason I bring this up is to ask us if we are armchair moralists?  How many of us look at the people of the world – or even those in the church – and criticize their actions.  We pick at them for the choices they make and point out their failures.  We openly comment on their deficiencies and wonder why they can’t do better.  Now, here is the kicker – are we doing any better than what we expect from them?  Are we living on par with our assessments?  Interestingly, while most of us armchair sports fans make no pretense of being able to play up to the caliber of professional athletes because we don’t have the talents, but how many of us actually have the capacity to live moral lives – we just don’t do it!  

Before we criticize our fellow man, let’s take a look at what we are doing.  If we can’t do it, maybe we should cut them some slack – if we aren’t doing it, let’s elevate our work as we minimize our words.

Think About It!