the wisdom of Mr. T

Lewis had no idea that the reading from A Year with C.S. Lewis today would relate to the words of the infamous Mr. T. But they do.

Lewis tells us that bad men don't know what badness is. They have lost sight of good and evil. And I don't think it takes too much insight to see that we are surrounded today by people who don't know good from evil. But this leads us to a very important question. How are we supposed to treat these people?

Believe it or not, Mr. T has the answer for us. Now, he might not have meant it the way I'm taking it. Pretty sure he didn't. But if you read his words literally, he says he pities the fool. And that's to be our attitude, as well. Sometimes we act like we should treat the fools who are wandering lost in this world with contempt, scorn, and ridicule. But God tells us to love them. God tells us, in fact, to follow Mr. T's advice. We should pity those who have foolishly wandered far from their reason and have embraced half truths and falsehoods because they "tickle their ears". They have made poor choices, and we should show them pity, kindness, and love. We should try to gently lead them back onto the path to truth.

After all, how many of us have wandered off the straight and narrow from time to time? If your answer is not "all of us", then I pity you. ;)

God, thank You for gently guiding us from the silliness of our foolishness, and into wisdom.