Justification

We live in a society vastly concerned about our works. We are always quick to inform everyone why we really haven’t failed at something when it’s gone wrong, why what we’ve messed up is not really our fault, and why the things we do are right, at all costs. In other words, we are always justifying ourselves to others.

This is what we were talking about in class the other day.

If we are always denying we are wrong, fallible, flawed, is this really true? I would have to say that it is most certainly NOT true.

It used to be that people said, “Nobody’s perfect.” But now we say, “It’s not my fault.” Or even, “It’s all good,” that is, “whatever you’ve attempted to do is good.” Personal accountability is at an all time low, and we are always justifying our behavior. We want to look good. What if we all of the sudden did not care about how we look anymore? Or even, what if no one cared about what job we did, or where we live, or what car we drive? What would happen?

Maybe we’d lose our identity, we’d wind up having nothing to justify anymore, but we’d have nothing to show either. Where would we be if we weren’t always justifying our selves to everyone around us?

Perhaps we’d be empty, because no one would care. We’d have to derive our sense of identity, our source from something else, something outside of ourselves. Something other than our works.

Just food for thought.