“Therefore, you are no longer a
slave but a son or daughter, and if you are his child,
then you are also an
heir through God.”
Galatians
4:7 (Common English Bible)
When Sara Roosevelt was asked if she
ever imagined that her son, Franklin Roosevelt, might become president, she
replied: “Never, no never! That was the last thing I should ever have imagined
for him, or that he should be in public life of any sort.” Both she and her
son, she insisted, shared a far simpler ambition – “The highest ideal – to grow
to be like his father, straight and honorable, just and kind, an upstanding
American.”[i]
An only child, and with few playmates his own age, Franklin viewed his
attentive and protective father as a companion and friend. Presidential
biographer, Doris Kearns Goodwin observes that Franklin’s optimistic spirit and
general expectation that things would turn out happily is a testament to the
self-confidence developed within the atmosphere of love and affection that
enveloped him as a child.[ii]
The prevailing wisdom today – and imbedded in
many approaches to psychological counseling – is that all of life consists of
two elements: first, the facts, and second, our way of looking at them. Few of
us escape some disappointment, some physical or mental limitation, or some
distressing circumstance. It is a fact of life. We have very little control
over these facts. Yet, what is largely within our power is how we look at these
facts. We may permit these facts to debilitate us, to ruin our temper, spoil
our work, and hurt our relationships with others, or we can become a master
over their influence. Any cursory examination of Franklin Roosevelt’s life
reveals a good measure of challenges, disappointments, and loss. But Roosevelt
remained a master over everyone, convinced that there was a larger purpose for
his life and nothing would stop his pursuit of that purpose. A positive home
environment and the knowledge that he bore a strong and respected family name
directed Roosevelt’s outlook.
The
Christian faith is a call to a new outlook – a call to a changed point of view
on the facts of life. In this teaching from Paul’s letter to the church in
Galatia, Paul reminds us that we were once slaves and, consequently, of
diminished value. And those who perceive to have a diminished value as a person
have a dim view of life. But now, in the person of Jesus Christ, we are no
longer slaves but children of God. If children of God, then an heir. Our name
has been connected, as was Roosevelt’s, to a strong and respected name. For
Paul, this makes a profound difference in how we are to live. We live as
members of a royal household.
The
deep divergence that commonly separates those who move positively through life
from those who don’t lies in their outlook. Jesus’ word for “repent” meant to
“change your mind” or “look at things differently”. When Jesus called those who
would become his disciples he didn’t ask them to join a church or subscribe to
some creed. He asked them to look at the facts differently. The laws concerning
the Sabbath we reconsidered. The place of children was elevated. For those
caught in the very act of sin, grace prevailed over punishment. Jesus called
for a radical shift in how life would be lived – a shift that now recognized
that with God on our side any handicap could be overcome and every challenge
met positively. When we get a new way of seeing things it is then that we find
a new life.
Joy,
[i]
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership In
Turbulent Times (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, New Delhi: Simon &
Schuster, 2018), 50.
[ii]
Goodwin, 43.
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