VANISHING VIRTUE

In the night recently I kept asking for answers to some major social, cultural and religious issues. My questions were things like, ‘Why doesn’t policy work in these arenas anymore?” or ‘Why can’t we trust leaders of any kind?” (Surveys say 76% of all people say they do not trust their leaders in the areas mentioned above and 87% in politics) or “Why is basic family and friendships so limited to any reality?”

I sat up fully awake. What I heard clearly was this: ‘It is the disintegration of virtue.’ This stopped me cold. I immediately went to check on what virtue is actually.
“Virtue is the quality of being morally good. The word virtue comes from the Latin root vir, for man. At first virtue meant manliness or valor, but over time it settled into the sense of moral excellence.” (Vocabulary.com)

Without the basic ingredient of moral excellence or being morally good… what chance do we have? The antonym (opposite) of virtue was listed as evil, sin, iniquity, immorality, degradation, wickedness, imperfection, disbelief, disregard, disrespect, unfairness, meanness and dishonesty.

I thought I was reading the morning news feed. What a pit. What a hammer to good. Without the sense of moral excellence we are snakes in a barrel, drug cartels, gangsters and gangs, wicked bankers and evil moneylenders, corrupt public universities, phony religious leaders, uncaring mothers and fathers or anyone without virtue. Without basic moral excellence any and all institutions will fail and fall…and should.

We have been set in the middle of all of this to bring life, light and a new way… the Kingdom way. Our work is cut out for us. We start by being personally virtuous.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.” Jesus