By Way Of Reminder …
Posted on May 2, 2007
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The older I get, the more often I find that I need to be reminded. I write myself little notes so I won’t forget to do some small task. Heading to the grocery store I make a list of the three items I am in search of so that I won’t forget any.
When it comes to more important areas of life it seems that more often I am in need of a reminder rather than instruction. It is quite common today to have academic discussions about things like morality and each person’s right to determine what is true for themselves. Although, C.S.Lewis (Oxford and Cambridge professor, author: The Chronicles of Narnia) surmised that what we typically need is simply a reminder. He wrote,
“Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that. As Dr. Johnson said, ‘People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.’ The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see”
Isn’t that what Jesus Christ did when he gave us the golden rule, reminding us to treat others the way we want to be treated? Why do we tend to avoid moral teachers that are simply trying to remind us?
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