A Retread

I'm reposting today. That's unusual, but I need some extra time for an attitude change -- and I do not wish to share my current attitude while I'm in the process of shedding it!

This was originally posted a couple of years ago when I ran across the following quote attributed to John Ruskin:

"What we think or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."

I wanted to find out more about him before I posted the above and found that someone wrote "John Ruskin was born in London on 8 February 1819. He was one of the greatest figures of the Victorian age, poet, artist, critic, social revolutionary and conservationist." I also found that, as many do, he wavered within his faith, moving through statements of beliefs. What never left him, it is written, "was belief in divine wisdom and a God of peace."

Based on his expressed belief, I can understand the above quote -- we can believe anything in our hearts and God will know it. But what remains with our fellow man is what we do. Our witness is to those who see the consequences of our actions, so we must let them see what is in our heart -- to let them see how we love our God.

Oh, we can be seen as the pharisees were seen by their people -- but what they showed was outward only, not what was in their heart. What they showed was for people to see, not for people to understand the depth of their love for God. Every day we have opportunities to show our God to people we know, and to people we don't know.

At one stop I left another pamphlet, right next to one I had left months ago. The old one was on the table in plain view, a little dog-eared because it had been read. While we were at this place of business (only fifteen minutes) at least ten people came through. How many read the pamphlet? I'll only know when I get to heaven. But when I do, "then shall I know even as also I am known." I Corinthians 13:12b, so my actions here had better speak louder than my thoughts.

John Ruskin has many quotes on one website. I enjoyed them, and hope I learn from this one, too: "Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them."