Someone recently pointed out to me a principle they had always believed, until it didn’t come true for them. They were disappointed in the principle. I had to remind myself of yet another principle. Principles are great, but they aren’t promises; they are principles.
I love principles. I believe in them. I write about them. I even attempt to live my life by some of them.
But principles of men aren’t guaranteed to come true.
You can count on the promises of God, but don’t expect the principles of men to work every time. The truth is that life happens…and sometimes life is more powerful than a principle.
Take one famous John Maxwell principle (I know…how dare I pick on one of his principles…and he’s one of my heroes of leadership…but just for example…please don’t tell him)
Principle: No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
That is true…unless you are a detective on a murder crime investigation. If you find a witness, you don’t care how much they care…you just want to know how much they know.
Principles are excellent. I love them. I write about them. I practice them. As I observe life, I even write some of them.
But real life can overpower principles. Principles can’t always overcome reality. The environment, other people, and circumstances will play a part in writing your end story, in spite of the principle you live by.
Don’t base your life on principles of man. Base your life on the promises of God. In them, you’ll never be disappointed.
Can you think of other principles of men that may not always be true?
The first principle that leaps to my mind is the one that confuses "tolerance" with "love". I love the drug addicts and "street people" who come to our church on Vancouver's Skid Row, but I do not tolerate the lifestyle that's put them there. (One of the big challenges is not to keep pounding that their lifestyle is bad (which, in their heart-of-hears, they already know) but to tell them that there's a far better way to live and yes, they're entitled to it.)__Now, here's one for debate: the principle that leads some churches to refuse to marry a couple that's already living together. What is the Scriptural foundation that supports that and ordains the Christian wedding ceremony as a pre-condition for living together? I'm genuinely curious about it, because I haven't found it and may well be missing something: and my concern is that young people who may have been "trying out" belief systems could get driven away from Christianity if they feel "excluded".
Drew, I'm personally with you on that. In our county more people get married at the County Clerk's office than in a church it seems. (I don't have statistics on that…but that's what I've been told and seems to be from observation when I go in there.) My problem with this is that they get no Christian counsel at all that way. I'd rather perform the ceremony and have a chance to speak into their life. We even tried to post information about a pre-marital seminar we are doing at the Clerk's office and they wouldn't allow us to do so.
I'd even be willing to tackle that subject here. Do you want to guest post it? (My posts are usually shorter than yours it appears, but if you write one I'd post it and see the responses we get.) Just a thought. If you don't want to, I may cover it soon.
Thanks
I accept the offer (and I'll keep it short 🙂 ) … will email it separately in a day or two — after my stepdaughter's wedding!
Cool. Look forward to it!
That's a great word. It's very easy for us to take principles too far and start treating them as laws or something the universe owes us, and that's very dangerous. If we think the universe owes us something, then I can't imagine how easy it would be to give up when the rewards for a good decision or the harvest of our hard work in ministry are a little slow in coming.
And, if we think principles are laws, that could be even more poisonous to ministry. If we live entirely from principles, we'll never make room for people or their individual needs and the hurts in their life.
I'm very glad you shared your observation.
Thanks Trevor
Good point Ron. I find that when someone is disappointed by a principle, they have more often than not, misapplied it.
Michael McKinney
Yes! I think that is true. Good principle!