To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
– GK Chesterton
I think that we all have choices in life. Certain choices are pivotal. I think that what Chesterton says here is very relevant to the sorts of options that we are often faced with. Does the end justify the means we use to achieve that end?
I tend to think that it is the way that we conduct ourselves on the journey that really matters because we can never really know when the end may come.
Ideals are like stars: you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.
– Carl Schurz (1829 – 1906)
Belief and daily life
Few of us apply or know how to apply our belief to our work or lack of work
We make only minimal connections between our faith and our spare time
We have little sense of a Christian approach to routine or monotonous activities
Our everyday activities are partly shaped by the dominant values of our society (Largely shaped?)
Many of our spiritual difficulties stem from the daily pressures we experience
Our everyday concerns do not receive much attention in the church
Only occasionally do theological institutions address everyday life issues
When addressed, everyday issues tend to be approached too theoretically
Only a minority of Christians read theological books or attend theological courses
Most church goers reject the idea of a gap between their beliefs and their way of life
Do you mean, for example, that just because I can use a legislative loophole to further my spritual ambitions in a more economical way doesn’t mean that I should, because to do so would limit my spiritual integrity, regardless of the integrity of those ambitions?