WHEN you stop and think about it, LIFE in itself and the many components of life as we know it are very simple. Some of the simplicity is a result of divine laws that men such as Newton decided to call "Laws of Nature". Specifically, in Newton’s case GRAVITY was observed and identified. Concepts such as centrifugal force, inertia and gravity are factors identified by men, women and children almost every day yet most of us are not really aware we KNOW these complex facts. Once I heard a professor sarcastically ask, "How can you know something that you don’t know?" He was condescendingly putting down a student who had missed several questions on a quiz and had told the professor, "I KNEW the answer but I just couldn’t think of it." This professor was not a man who could understand such levels of mental disabilities because at the time he was writing three books, and was able to keep three secretaries busy working on the text for those books. But I think I can vouch for the disability of that student.

Driving onto one of my neighboring streets a few days ago I saw a person flick his cigarette against an opened window and I would almost bet he did not have a clue he was working within the parameters of physics – inertia and gravity for starters. He moved his fingers toward a fixed object (partially opened window) and the ashes on the cigarette were forced off the end of the smoking cigarette and slowly descended to the street. He was conducting a classic experiment of physics but was he aware of this? I doubt it.

We ingest food into our bodies every day but our lack of specific knowledge about digestion, the workings of our stomach and its unique acids never enters our minds—unless of course we experience heart burn. Those of us who have a reflux condition have learned the hard way what kinds of food and positions of the body can do to interrupt our body’s tranquility.

Why do I bring up such things? The answer to that question is like life, it is simple. William Cowper said, "When was public virtue to be found when private (virtue) was not?" If that’s deep, let it float around in your mind like a marshmallow in hot chocolate for a little while. Read Cowper’s question again.

How we live…how we act…how we talk…how we treat our fellow man…how we pay our debts…how we regard our obligations to contracts we sign…I could go on and on, but the answer or solution to any of these statements is: Everything we DO in life depends upon our concepts of God, others and our personal response to duty and obligations or responsibilities of life. Sure, there are some things that could be mentioned that may be discounted but to the believer most of life’s (basic) problems are theological problems.

If you claim to be a believer in God and fellowship with a group of believers, and find yourself wondering: about your faith, about the whole scheme of spiritual things – it should come to your mind "quite simply" (or maybe gradually) what William Cowper phrased as a question: "When was public virtue to be found when private virtue was not?" It should also be obvious that the ANSWER to Cowper’s question is "NEVER."

In other words you cannot be or will not be "in church" what you are not in private. As Lincoln once said, "We can fool some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time; but we cannot fool all the people all of the time." More precisely, we cannot fool God any time! He knows what we are inside even if the person sitting beside you in church doesn’t have a clue as to how deep your spiritual life is (or should be). So, next time you "go to church", ponder just where or how deep your virtue really is; you may discover that is how and why most believers find such self-examination is a prerequisite to "getting something" out of a sermon—or even "going to church". If we don’t "get anything out of a sermon" maybe we have not opened our minds to new information – it’s that simple. #####

THE WORDWRIGHT