Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 John 2:
"10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him2 there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
There are people who go through life stumbling from church to church, job to job, clique to clique, always breaking with the past in acrimony and derision and with the very telling language of "those people". What they don't understand is that the problem isn't in "those people"; the problem is really in them. By calling everyone else blind, they make it plain that they themselves can't see the reality of their own lives. Though they think they have all the answers, they are in fact the ones who are in the dark.
Socrates sat upon the hill in Athens when a traveler came by. "Excuse me, sir," the man said, "but I have just left Sparta and am looking for a new city to call home. Can you tell me what the Athenians are like?" "Yes," Socrates said, "but first tell me how you found the people of Sparta to be." "Oh, vile and uncouth," the man said. "Sparta is full of the most malicious, mean-spirited, and uncivilized people in one could know." "Keep walking," Socrates said, "you will find he people of Athens to be the exact same as you found the people in Sparta."
Not too long after that another traveler came upon Socrates on the hill. "Excuse me, sir," the man said, "but I have just left Sparta and am looking for a new city to call home. Can you tell me what the Athenians are like?" "Yes," Socrates said, "but first tell me how you found the people of Sparta to be." "Oh kind and gracious," the man said. "I hated to leave. Sparta is full of some of the finest people in the world." With that Socrates put his arm around the man's neck. "Come with me," he said. "You will find he people of Athens to be the exact same as you found the people of Sparta."
That's a true story.
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