[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201c<\/em>John the Baptist appeared in the desert<\/em> proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.\u201d<\/em> (Mk. 1:4)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How good are you at taking advice? Who can tell you the truth? Are you the sort of person that takes advice easily, learning well from others? Or, are you stubborn, barely able to admit you\u2019re wrong or don\u2019t know? There are folks like that, you know. They\u2019re often not fun to be around.<\/p>\n

I call it the \u201cWhitfield Carpet Principle.\u201d It can be stated like this: Each person must have at least one other person in his or her life that can speak truth to them, \u201ccall them on the carpet\u201d about their nonsense, call them out about their foolishness. Otherwise, such a person is a jerk, and quite possibly worse.<\/em> It is, I have found, an almost universal principle\u2014almost as true as gravity.<\/p>\n

Now this principle holds in the spiritual and religious realm too. Without someone to call out our foolishness, we risk becoming spiritual and religious fools. We become the pathetic makers of our own religion. We become spiritual jerks, and usually lonely.<\/p>\n

Which is why it\u2019s important to be able to hear the Church\u2019s call to repentance. As John the Baptist called the people in his time to repent, so sometimes does the Church and her preachers do the same. But can you listen? Are you the sort of person who allows the Church to speak the truth to you? This is a huge problem, found among both the right and the left, this unwillingness to listen to the Church, to the gospel, and to Jesus, because we think we know better.<\/p>\n

So, think about what it means to listen to the Church. Can you hear her call to repentance? Do you take the Church seriously at all? It\u2019s an important question\u2014one that must be answered before Jesus comes, before you can see him.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cJohn the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.\u201d (Mk. 1:4)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[33,49,263,64],"yoast_head":"\n