Story
Keith Hernandez was one of baseball’s elite players—a lifetime .300 hitter, multiple Gold Gloves, a batting title, an MVP award,…
Identity
Smalley · Trent
Story
Membership for Good Behavior
Today in the Word, March 26, 1993
In 1900 the Daughters of the American Revolution elected the well-known social reformer Jane Addams to honorary membership. It seemed a lifetime recognition of her work. Years later, during World War I, Addams took a public antiwar stance and insisted that even those labeled subversives still deserved due process and a fair trial. The DAR responded by expelling her. Reflecting on the reversal, Addams dryly observed that she had assumed her election was for life. She now understood it had only been for good behavior. The story lands because it is so ordinary. Many of us have lived with versions of the same arrangement—welcome as long as we stay within the expected lines. The moment we step outside them, the welcome evaporates. It is a clear picture of conditional acceptance.
How you’d preach it
Use this when speaking about the difference between performance-based acceptance and the secure belonging God offers. Let the contrast sit without over-explaining.
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