Scares Me

What do these three people have in common?

-Ted Haggard
-Eliot Spitzer
-An Arab sheik (can't remember/find his name)

Well, all three of them made a very public case against the very thing they, themselves, later got caught in/for.

• Ted Haggard - cried out about how bad homosexuality is. Then, got caught having had a homosexual relationship
• Eliot Spitzer - helped bust prostitution rings in NYC and this morning resigned for his part as a customer in a prostitution ring.
• The Sheik - cried out for morality and was known for his harsh punishments for women who were immoral...and it comes out recently that he has what amounts to an entire harem of women himself.

It's not that their fights against these things are wrong. For the most part, I actually agree with most of what they said and fought for. The unfortunate thing is that they each took such public, hard lines about those issues....and then got caught doing, of all things, the very things they fought against.

And the reason is scares me is that it just proves that none of us is outside the scope of messing up and failing. Yes, we need to stand for what is right and stand against what we know to be sin. BUT,

1. Things just aren't as black and white as we often like to think they are
2. I can't ever think that I am above messing up in any and all areas
3. I can't ever think that I'm better than anyone else
4. We're all just sinners saved by grace. On a different day, under different circumstances, it could be me that screws up so terribly and/or publicly.

May I never be so quick to judge someone else or decide that "I'll never" do this or that. May I extend grace and remember that I, too, like the Apostle Paul, am the chief of all sinners....(1 Tim 1:15).