Thinking for yourself

When it comes to right and wrong, many people today talk about "thinking for yourself" and "making up your own mind" and "deciding what is right for you."

Experience, however, teaches that we often delude ourselves: rationalizing our own selfishness and convenience.

Scripture teaches the same thing, as we hear in today's first reading (Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13).

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes:
but the LORD pondereth the hearts.

This recalls the Lord's words to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7:

For the LORD seeth not as man seeth;
for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Things may seem right and good to us, but things are not always as they seem and human beings have a great capacity for self-deception (especially where one's own desires are concerned).

God, however, sees not as man sees; God sees not just outward appearance; God sees and knows the very essence of things and the very heart of man.

Moreover, God loves us and has a plan for us that transcends and transforms the suffering and tragedies of this world into goodness beyond the reach of human imagination or thought.

God has thought it through - and he has done it for us.

As human beings, as finite creatures of flesh and blood, we need to be mindful of our limitations as we face a complex world and we need to be humble before God as we seek to know and live the truth in its fullness by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.