Moderation In All Things

April 13, 2017

Day 103: The Best Party:
"Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you." —Psalm 37:3-5

"God wants what is best for us, not to take away our fun," Anderson explained to Tommy, a patient of his who believed that he could not be a church goer because he liked "to party too much, and God doesn't seem to want [people] to have any fun."

I can understand how Tommy feels. I have had similar feelings, not because I liked to party too much, but because of what I have shared before. We are told to keep our eyes on things above, to always focus on and be longing for heaven. Earthly pleasures are frowned upon in the church, so it makes sense that Tommy would feel like God doesn't want us to have any fun. There is a part of me that totally gets that, but there is another that understands that God is just looking out for our best interest. Is it in our best interest to get so drunk that we can't walk straight, drive safely, or talk intelligibly? Of course it isn't. So much can go wrong when we lose control of ourselves. I speak from experience. Luckily, for me nothing ever went horribly wrong when I have been drunk, but the potential for disaster was there. It's in our best interest to avoid excess, of anything really. From the Greek poet Hesiod (700 bc) and Roman dramatist Plautus (250-184 bc) to 19 century transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson and current philosophers, everyone can agree that moderation is key. "Moderation in all things" is a common phrase that most of us have heard.

However, there is a problem with "moderation in all things." It seems innocent enough, but as the author Steve Reed points out in "Moderation in all Things: a Useless Phrase," "You can't have a 'moderate' level of adultery, pornography, theft, bearing false witness or murder in your life and expect to please God." He makes a good point. After all, the phrase does say in ALL things. When you look at it that way, it tends to lose some of its power. Reed believes that we would be better off to replace the word "moderation" with "righteousness." That would work, but I think most of us understand that the original phrase was not meant to be taken so literally.  It is a generalization. Who is going to bother listing only those things that apply? Moderation in drink, moderation in food, Moderation in _____, you fill in the blank.  Moderation in all things is succinct and profound enough to get us to consider practicing it.

Perhaps Reed can practice moderation in being overly judgmental? Perhaps I can too. LOL.

Have a great day readers.