Today’s Scripture Reading (October
30, 2013): 2 Chronicles 26
Business philanthropist W. Clement Stone once wrote that we need to “have
the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing
because it is right. These are magic keys to living your life with integrity.”
Doing right because it is right might be the magic key to integrity, but it is
seldom easy. One of my core beliefs is that we are called simply to love. And
it is amazing how often I run into good people who are consumed in some area of
their lives by hate. In that moment, to remind them that they are simply called
to live a life dominated by love, to talk about love as a powerful transforming
force in this world, seems weak. It is often met with complaints that all I
want to do is to condone sin, but that misses the point of transformational
love. Yet still, saying no is hard. If there is a complaint our culture holds against
the church, a complaint that the church really needs hear, it is that we are
too slow in saying no to hate in our circles of influence. We are much too slow
in giving our response of love.
Uzziah, the
king and the most powerful man in Judah, walked into a place where he had no
authority to be. And what made Uzziah’s action even harder was that Uzziah
himself was respected and loved. And Azariah and the priests had a decision to
make. Either they could allow the king to go where ever it was that he wanted
to go, or they were going to have to do something extremely hard – they were
going to have to stand up to the most powerful man in the land and say no.
In my mind,
the scene was probably a little comical. Uzziah enters the temple to burn
incense before God, believing very strongly (and wrongly) that he had the
authority to do whatever it was that he wanted to do – and behind him walked Azariah
and eighty scared priests who in this moment wished that they were anywhere in
the land besides the temple. But they were here, and someone had to stand up
for what was right. Every one of the priests were willing to be courageous in
this moment because they loved God – and I believe because they loved the king.
Love allows
us to be courageous. And sometimes saying no is the most loving thing we can
do. Azariah understood that for the king’s safety, he had to stand between
Uzziah and what his pride was driving him to do. He, and everyone that he could
bring with him, had to say no and stand up for what was right. For the priests
and for us, these actions really are the magic keys to integrity – and to
health for us and those around us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah
1
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