stiff-necked

A few years ago at a business seminar I learned about something called the Fundamental Attribution Error. This rule of what in business is called emotional intelligence  is about a basic mistake we make when we look at each other’s success or failure.

Here’s the mistake: when I explain why good things happen to me, I tend to say it’s because I worked hard and earned them. When good things happen to other people it’s human nature to say they were lucky, not that they worked harder than I did. And the reverse is true. Bad things I tend to attribute either to my bad luck or to the other guy being a bad person. If we’re not careful, we give ourselves all kinds of breaks but are really hard on other people.

Why the dissertation on the Fundamental Attribution Error? Because I think Moses knew about it a long time ago. I read this morning in Deuteronomy  9:5-6 about Moses instructing the people not to misunderstand God’s grace to them:

“It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

It’s interesting to think that this mistake we make is as old as humankind. Even the Israelites were prone to think that all of God’s goodness to them was because they were such fine, upstanding people. In fact, they weren’t much better than the wicked pagans God would use them to punish.

It’s a good reminder for me. I live a pretty good life, with plenty of material things. In general, I think I have a good reputation and maybe even some respect at work and at church. It would be easy think I’m a pretty fine fellow. But when I do a gut-check, I realize that I’m not that great; in fact, there’s a lot about me I’m glad people don’t know. I didn’t earn this good life, it’s a great blessing.

And if I paraphrase Moses in this way, I end up with a statement that is true and applicable to me: It is not because of my righteousness or my integrity that I have a place in heaven, because I'm as stiff-necked as any Israelite. Salvation is God’s great grace to me.