Frequently I have remembered that experience when called upon to 'spearhead' some program by delivering an 'inspirational address' at a 'kick-off banquet.' The image is powerfully clear. I was being asked to push people -- at the very least to engage in a 'will-nudger'which was supposed to prime the pump of their good intentions.

But is it not true that most people are doing about as well as they are able? Never once in over twenty years of preaching have I been confronted with people who had 'decided' to do less than they felt they could. I believe it is unlikely that the trouble lies in a lack of will to intend well. Sermons which assume the problem to be lack of will invariably boot from the back side. But I do believe that people are hindered from doing and being by many other factors. The oppressive personality (discussed earlier) which is engaged constantly in putting people down is behaving out of necessity -- not freedom. (Some of us need others to look down upon so that then we can bear looking at ourselves.) The redeeming focus for change is to remove the necessity so that they no longer need to look down upon others. This is precisely what the gospel of Jesus Christ provides. It is a release from evil necessity into the freedom of loving others as we love ourselves. And we can now love ourselves because in fact we are loved by God. No longer having to prove our own worth, we may now be set free from making others prove themselves to us.