Thomas Paine–the pro-revolutionary patriot and pamphleteer–was certainly no Christian and no fan of Christianity. But I find this sentence to be sound Christian thinking:
Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, ‘If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace’; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.
Of course, Paine was rallying the country to independence from Britain, but his words can apply equally well to other ventures. Is there some institutional change you know must happen but have been putting off for fear of your own hardship? Is there a family confrontation that must take place but you are waiting for someone else to handle it and let you off the hook? Is there a difficult decision to be made in your church but you are happy to let the bomb explode in some other lap? Is there a need in the world, a crisis in your city, or a cause in your country that you are waiting for others to take up without you? Are you quietly saying to yourself, “If there must be trouble, let it be in someone else’s day”?
Christian virtue is far different. If you or your family or your church or your movement or your nation are in trouble now, should not your heart cry out, “Better that I face this instead of my children”? If suffering is to come, if hardship is to ensue, don’t you want to be summoned to the task rather than someone else? Aren’t you eager to be a “generous parent”?
May God awaken a sense of duty for all who to ought to face trouble now that others can be at peace later.
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