Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

SAINTS AND SWINE After three harrowing years in a Nazi prison camp, Viktor Frankl said, "I saw some men act like swine while others acted like saints." The prominent psychiatrist explained that those who acted like saints had decided to act and react responsibly regardless of the conditions. Our everyday conduct depends on that same kind of decision. Some have little concern for the feelings of others. Even some Christians feel it is no one's business what they do, and they live very selfishly. How foreign to the laws of love our Master taught. Paul pleaded: Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died (Romans 14:15). In other words, our actions should be geared to heal people, not hurt them. We are not islands, complete in ourselves, but oceans washing many shores. Admittedly, it is often difficult to decide what is right and wrong. These three criteria help us decide: (1) Can I do it with pure motives? (2) Will it offend anyone? (3) Will it expose me to the danger of developing bad habits? An honest answer to each question will make a sound decision easier. The world is waiting for people who live not by the law of the jungle but by the law of love. To a spiritually starving world, that is without doubt our best personal witness.