Correction,

CORRECTION

I had finished my Th.D., three years beyond a Ph.D., three dissertations, and I was doing what was considered good. Then an honorary D.D. suggested bluntly and showed me how I could do better. Hesitantly, I corrected my way and I was doing better. I could have said like so many do, “Stop judging me!” How can we be corrected if we do not want to be judged or analyzed? I learned the hard way that there is more than being good, there is being better. I can be wrong, but I must not persist in it. If I do, it shall become bad. Neither should I correct someone that is better than I am. Our world is filled with experts that stand in dire need to be corrected.

I do follow the Bible because it is the best text on correction (II Timothy 3:16). In fact, I want very much to be corrected by a God that loves me. He treats me like a father treats his son and He does not want me just to get by when I can do much better. Particularly when I fail, He does not want me to take it as a defeat but as a challenge. He wants me to get up, gather my strength and try to do better (Hebrews 12:1-13). I am not talking from my head but from my life encounter with correction. Had I not been corrected, I would have continued in my erring way and may have died. That is why I am encouraging others to do better (James 5:19-20).

The Bible is also a history on correction. From Adam to us, the failure to be corrected had and continues to have serious, tragic, and fatal consequences. The biggest was the loss of the “Presence of the Creator.” Then there was a flood, a Babel (confusion), and a host of nations and cities that were destroyed. For proof that such things happened, we need but to read Zephaniah Chapter Three. Particularly, the people that claimed to belong to God and resisted correction were not exempt from the consequences (Jeremiah 5:3). Christians too must let Christ wash their feet and be corrected if they want a part in Him and His World (John 13:8). Even a good man, like Nicodemus, had to undergo correction (John 3:1-14). Many of us, even Christians that take grace for granted, must make a 180-degree turn. It is expected of us to do better than the world and like a fig tree, when we bear no fruit, we have a three-year grace period; however, if we accept correction, we may extent our life and productivity (Luke 13:1-9).