Credit for the Sunrise

A few years back there was a scandal involving a popular historian's new book.  It seems that when writing the book there were sections that she didn't actually write herself.  She took some passage directly from her assistant's research notes and placed them into the book.  The thing is that the assistant had also taken the passages from someone else's work.  When the book came out, there was quite a dust up.

From time to time we hear about a politician who gets in trouble for copying another's speech.  Now most of those speech's sound alike to me, so I'm not sure how you tell, but they can.

The whole thing reminds me of taking a young child fishing.  You get the poles and bait.  Pack them up with a snack and go to the lake.  Once there you bait the hook, cast the line and some time later, while the child is playing with the worms, you reel in a fish.  They come over to lift it out of the water and say, "Look what I caught".   The child is happy and it's all fun, but it does bring up a point.

How often does one person take credit for the work of another?  Whether in school or the workplace there is always someone taking credit for something that they had little or nothing to do with.  The expression is "It's like a rooster taking credit for the sunrise." Or it's like a weather broadcaster on TV who seems quite proud of the day he is predicting.  Just like the rooster, he didn't bring the sunshine.

As Christians we can crow pretty loudly from time to time.  We know right and wrong and try to walk the walk.  So much so that we can believe that our goodness actually counts for something.  You see for all of our efforts we are nothing without the grace of God.  We can do our best, but our best falls painfully short.

Watch this clip from Pastor Chris.

Pastor Chris spoke of Mother Theresa who spent her life helping the poor in the streets of Calcutta.  I once read a quote from her where she described he soul as being black as coal.  She knew that her efforts did not buy her grace.  They were a response to the grace of God.  And if her actions can't buy her grace, how insignificant are our own efforts?