A physician that smokes while promoting abstinence from cigarette smoking and tobacco use.
A Christian that counsels others to always fast and pray while he’s busy eating six-round meals per day and sleeping 8 hours per night.
A marriage counsellor who advises others to visit a therapist often, although she has unsettled marital issues at home and never visits one.
A politician who legislates on important anti-COVID health measures but often violates the same rules he made because ‘well, he’s above the law.’
A teacher that hasn’t read a new book in 5 years but every day shouts to his students to study.
A climate change activist that does all the things that pollute the environment, including having shares in the petroleum industry, yet comes on national TV to lecture everyone on how the world will soon come to an end because of the greenhouse effect.
Should they shut up their mouths until they’ve perfected the art of practising what they preach? That means that we have to wait for them until they’ve become perfect, even if that takes years to achieve.
Or should they continue teaching and counselling while working on themselves to improve?
Although this means that sometimes we can catch them defaulting, and we have to accept that they are ‘humans’ like us after all.
Or should they be allowed to continue living their private lives and still give good counsel?
This means that we have to just focus on what they say knowing they’re good counsels. Basically, ‘follow what I say but not what I do’ type of thing. But won’t their lives discourage us?
Or should they stop giving any counsel whatsoever, quit their jobs and live their contradictory lives in peace?
Even if this means abdicating their important role, inability to provide for their families and living in the same quagmire as us basically.
The questions really are: To what extent should we tolerate contradictions in the lives of others? What contradictions are you managing in your life? And how do you solve a contradiction?
How about you that read my blog post, and loved it but won’t share same or talk about it with your friends and colleagues? Isn’t that a contradiction too?
Contradictions everywhere.
