When politicians presume to do God's work, they do not become divine but diabolical.

Self-Righteousness

Each thinks he or she is more righteous than the other. Each

Godly relationships flourish best between two humble people who acknowledge their weaknesses and sins and their need for grace.

I was good at helping other people see and own their sin. But I was not willing to believe that my need was just as desperate. Maybe I was blinded by my theological knowledge or my pastoral skill. But

Humility enables us to see our own sin before we focus on the sin and weaknesses of another.

Though we are to be wise, we are not to fear the world in which God has placed us. Yes, things will get messy. But if you are humbled by the messiness of sin in your own life, yet confident in God's grace to change you, you will not be afraid to get close to other sinners who need that same grace. God will use the messiness you encounter in others to spur your own growth in the gospel.

When you go onstage, the process of getting you from the dressing room to the stage is all about ego.

Open yourself to extreme, excessive, extravagant grace.

When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting.

In fact, now you mention the subject, I have been very bad in my own small way. I don't think you should be so proud of that, though I am sure it must have been very pleasant.

What odd chaps you painters are! You do anything in the world to gain a reputation. As soon as you have one, you seem to want to throw it away. It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.