Immoderate Moderacy

Ouch! Ever discovered that you've been ranting on about something for eons, and those around you are looking at you like, "Will he/she ever grow up?"

Yup...I've been there. Paul admonishes us to let our moderation be known to all men.

It is so easy for me to go extremist over a new idea or great piece of theology. Some philosophical tidbit gets stuck in my head and I run around ranting. Wouldn't it be great if I could take some of the old truths that I know to be sure and sound, and run around talking about them?

But it is usually (for me, at least) the immoderate ideas that I must tout. The extremist views that I must toy with. The most far-fetched theological tendencies that I must dangle before the noses of my congregants.

And when I am confronted, do you know what most of me is thinking? I AM being moderate, they're just immoderate...in the opposite direction.

I justify my extremism, by pointing to what I always christen, the "ORTHODOX CHURCH." Great idea. But I am usually not reeeeealy leaning on orthodoxy when I suggest something bizarre about Christian Economics that even Van Til would blush at, or when I throw a radical reconstructionist twist on Starbucks Venture-Capitalism that would make Rushdooney's head spin.

Sigh. Balance really is a great word, and a great position...but have you ever noticed that when you are trying to get two scales to even out, like the scales that Lady Justice is holding...how hard it is to get them precisely exact? It's so much easier to make one high and the other low.

Moral of all this: God, give me moderacy, and let it be known. Help me to love theology, help me to embrace good philosophy, but let me remember that all new ideas are not necessarily the best ones. God...sometimes, please make me boring.

God, thou art my God, earely will I seeke thee: my soule thirsteth for thee: my flesh longeth greatly after thee in a barren and drye land without water. Thus I beholde thee as in the Sanctuarie, when I beholde thy power and thy glorie. For thy louing kindnesse is better then life: therefore my lippes shall prayse thee. Thus will I magnifie thee all my life, and lift vp mine hands in thy name.

Psalme 63:1-4

Prayer For The Month
Adapted from Richard Baxter's Puritan Non-Conformist liturgy of 1660:

Eternal, Almighty, and most gracious God: heaven is your throne, and earth is your footstool; holy and reverend is your name; you are praised by the angels of heaven, and in the gathering of your church on earth. Despite our unworthiness, you have invited us through our Mediator, Jesus Christ, to present ourselves and our prayers to you. Receive us graciously. Help us by your Spirit. Let us stand in awe of you. Put your law into our hearts, and write it on our minds. Let your word come to us in power, and help us receive it in love, with attentive, reverent, and teachable minds. Through your word, allow us to taste the flavor of eternal life. Make us fervent in prayer and joyful in praise. Help us serve you this day without distraction, that we may find that a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, and that it is good for us to come near to God; through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

"Remember that it is not hasty reading, but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian."

THOMAS BROOKS