Thursday, August 4, 2011

Doing What's Right, Even When It Makes No Sense

What would you do: teen golfer disqualifies self, gives up medal - Jay Busbee (Devil Ball Golf)

Just don't read the comments. It's disheartening.

Seriously, read the story and not the comments. Leave with a good feeling and an important lesson taught.

2 comments:

Richard Alger said...

Chalk one up to integrity. That is awesome.

Would you "do what is right" if given an Abrahamic test that was, on first sight, as morally wrong as sacrificing your child?

Papa D said...

I don't know, Rich - and I hope I never need to find out.

All I know is that I would have to be absolutely certain it truly was coming from God - and I don't have enough confidence in dreams to accept something like that. It would have to be undeniable to me personally - and, even then, all I am left with is hope that I could do it. If I was absolutely convinced, I could do almost anything, I think - but sacrificing my child . . . I don't think so.

It doesn't help that I am willing to consider alternative meanings with the entire story of Abraham and Isaac - to see possibilities differntly than most people. For example, I can see a really good argument that it was a test to see if Abraham had discarded fully his ancestral belief in human sacrifices - and see God stepping in to stop it as a sign that Abraham needed to let go fully - that such a sacrifice was only required of GOD.

So, in short, I don't know how I would react - but I think I (and anyone else) will never have to find out specifically about that particular "test".

Otoh, I've done a number of things that made no real sense at the time simply because I felt prompted to do so, and some of them were hard to do. I have seen the purpose of some of those things in hindsight, but I don't se the purpose yet for others.