Article July 30, 1990 Issue

Let's have more Christ-finding and less faultfinding

Finding out how much good there is in the people around us can be enlightening—if we'll take the time to look for it.

Thomas O. Poyser

Wouldn't the world be much improved if there were less faultfinding and more Christ-finding among its inhabitants? By Christ-finding I mean looking for and finding that always present divine influence that Christ Jesus identified when he spoke of the kingdom of God within you. It must therefore be within everyone, whether he or she knows or exhibits it or not! Such Christliness consists of Godlike qualities: goodness, holiness, honesty, love, patience, purity, understanding, uprightness.

And of course, faultfinding is that unpleasant and almost unending habit most of us are guilty of that consists of looking for something in others to criticize or ridicule. Now, in all honesty, who is really free of all faults? Don't most of us have to admit to harboring more hidden faults than we'd like our friends or neighbors or loved ones to know about?

Have you ever thought how wonderful it would be to be free of faults entirely? As I considered this one day, it occurred to me to make a list of what I believed to be the worst faults I was harboring—like criticism, impatience, irritability, overreaction, procrastination—just a little list! Not surprisingly it got longer and longer and longer! I haven't yet succeeded in wiping the slate clean, but in the spirit of James's instruction in the Bible "Confess your faults one to another," I'm still working at it. How about joining me?

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