In Need of Renovation

One of the most challenging and influential books I have ever read is Dallas Willard's Renovation of the Heart. I was skimming through it again and came across a segment entitled "Standing For The Right Without Egotism" that really convicted me. I apologize for where I have fallen short in this in my previous blog postings:

One of the real sources of difficulty here is confusion of our desire for what is good and right to prevail with our desire to have our own way. One often sees the effects of this confusion in families, in churches or between religious and political groups.

In such cases, very important values are often at stake, and people are passionately committed to one side or another. This is as it should be. But more often than not, the contempt and anger for others that emerges in the conflict is nothing but a manifestation of the will to have my way.

Families, churches, communities, and sovereign nations become embroiled in deadly conflicts that would immediately disappear or be resolvable but or the relentless will to have my/our way. Very likely, the First World War - with horrific worldwide consequences that reverberate to this day - was entirely due to this human tendency. A significant part of the business of police, courts, and hospitals is the result of the drive of mere self-will and has no genuine bearing on the good of individuals and groups, much less on the glory of God.

'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,' Jesus said, 'it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life [soul] loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal' (John 12:24-25).

This is a law of human life, partly visible at the level of purely human understanding (remember Erich Fromm) and fully demonstrated in the life of Jesus and that of his people throughout the ages, for all to see. It is the controlling principle of the renovated heart and the restored soul. Its radical goodness progressively subverts and replaces the radical evil in the fallen human heart, mind, body, and social and other environment.