Source of Governor Sanford's Demise Clear

It has been tragic to watch the life and political career of Governor Mark Sanford come unraveled. It is always a tragedy, whether it is a Democratic Governor from New York, a Republican Governor from South Carolina, or a celebrity in Hollywood. It is always a tragedy. It involves spouses, children, and other real people who are deeply wounded and harmed.

More, it is tragic because it harms our society in deep ways. It leads to cynicism from people about marriage. The first question asked when another Governor resigns is "when does evidence of her affair come out?" It leads to cynicism in our political arena - one side cheers when the other looses a leader and claims "we are the right side." Well, this is just ridiculous because there are more than enough failures on both sides to disqualify them from this argument. Furthermore, no side wins when they treat hurting people as pawns of their arguments.

The natural question is "Why?" Why would this man do this? The answers are myriad - dysfunction, hubris, etc. The true answer is the sinful condition of the human heart. The Bible is so true when it states unequivocally that "all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." This is why it happens so often and to all sorts of people. None of us are immune.

There is a further tragedy in the current situation with Governor Sanford. It has been tragic to watch him literally unravel before the cameras. His "mea culpas" are pitiful such as his description of this situation as a "tragic love story." He tried to make it all sound less evil by describing it as a love story, but then telling us how he wanted to fall back in love with his wife and save his family. It was evidence of a deeply disturbed man who had completely lost his way. It did not help him, but hurt his situation even more.

It is evidence of the truth of scripture. One of the many ways we know that the Bible is true is seeing how well it applies to the human experience. When you read verses that directly explain life situations, it is evidence that God made us, watches us, understands us, and has written the Bible to us to give us the exact wisdom we need for life. James 1 explains the effect of living a life with the characteristics of doubting God's wisdom and instruction and of being disobedient to His laws and plans. Verse 8 uses these words: "a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Governor Sanford was obviously a double-minded man for a period of time. It is not my intention to judge him or say he was an evil man - again we are all in the same situation as sinners who have fallen short of God's standards. But he obviously was living a double life caught between two types of choices and trying to live out both of them. The causes for this double life may be difficult to analyze, but the effect is easy to see. Why would he think he could run off to another nation to be with a woman other than his wife when our nation was watching him(due to his recent efforts to reject federal bailout money), along with his staff(for obvious reaons) and his family(his wife apparently already knew of this situation), and not get caught? Why would he go through with his emotional statements seeking some kind of catharsis from the press and public?

It is simply instability. When you are trying to live two lives and hide one from the other, the result is you become unstable. You loose a sense of reality. You work so hard to rationalize the situation that you become an expert at convincing yourself rather than looking at facts and seeing them as they are. You seek to mesh the two completely incongruent worlds together in some contortion of logic - his attempt to explain the "tragic love story" with this woman and his desire to repair his family and fall in love with his wife again. Unstable is the only word to describe it. All of it makes you make choices that are poor and self-destructive. You act based solely upon selfishness with little or no regard for consequences to those around you.

Our response should not be judgment for anyone caught in this situation. Again, it is heart breaking and tragic. Moreover, everyone of us could make the choices that would lead us to this same predicament - the potnetial is in all of us. We would do well to learn from this situation instead of judge. Double-mindedness will affect us the same way. Integrity is critical. Each of us will go on making mistakes as we walk life's journey. To be human indeed is to be fallible. Fallibility does not require double-mindedness. But choosing to hold onto to sinful choices or bad mistakes will create the double-mindedness and its resulting instability will bring a person down every time.

Trust in the grace Jesus brings. He loves us and works in our lives to grow us. After a mistake, if you will confess it He will forgive the failure and teach you so you learn to avoid it in the future. He will turn the mistake into ministry and make you better and wiser. If we hide the mistakes and turn towards a double-life, we will face instability that will be devastating. We too will come unravelled hurting ourselves and those around us in the process. Wouldn't you rather walk in the grace of His restoration than in the instability of double-mindedness?