THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD …

This whole mess with Ted Haggard is so very sad in so many ways.
In the last few days as the original story broke and then broke and then broke, I’ve been reminded of something Chicago’s great evangelist Dwight L. Moody once said. It’s a quote I have taped to the wall above my computer at home, next to another quote (by Annie Lamott — the breathe, pray, be kind, stop grabbing one) and below one of my prized posessions: a beautiful photograph of Billy Graham taken two years ago at his home in North Carolina, America’s pastor (the person I respect most in the world), now in his winter years, seated in an Adirondak chair, looking out to a point I can’t see in the distance.

I have Moody’s quote and Annie’s quote and Billy’s picture there to remind me of who I am and who I’d like to be and how it is and how it should be.

I’m hoping their presence will help me keep this latest “Christian” scandal in proper perspective. Perhaps what Moody said will do the same for you.
Moody said:

Of one hundred men, one will read the Bible. The ninety-nine will read the Christian.

And if that doesn’t float your boat, how about this from that other great American moral theologian, Willy Wonka:

My dear boy, if God had intended for us to walk he wouldn’t have invented roller skates.