” The Psalmist asks the question, “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?” The answer is “he who has clean hands and a pure heart.” The problem is that none of us has clean hands or a pure heart. Forster, who said, “ I’m a holy man minus the holiness. We have all had enough impure thoughts, spoken enough wicked words, and done enough depraved deeds that we can confess the words of the late British author E.M. I have never met anyone who doesn’t have any regrets. Maybe you engaged in some immoral behavior or committed some malicious act. Perhaps you made a selfish choice that marred something or someone who was pure and beautiful. Maybe you have never illegally touched a famous painting before, but I am quite sure that all of you have acted in an unholy manner at some point in your life. I didn’t have clean hands and I definitely didn’t have a pure heart I was unholy! Even though I didn’t get caught, I immediately regretted what I had done. My selfish act marred something that was pure and beautiful. Just like Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden, I had touched something that was never meant to be touched. I didn’t hear any alarms or footsteps coming at me, but as I walked away I could feel my stomach sinking into the pit of guilt. After contemplating this for a while, I looked around to make sure no one was watching and I gently leaned over the rope and pressed my pointer finger into the lower right-hand corner of the masterpiece. The possibility of sounding an alarm or getting apprehended by the NYPD only added to the excitement. It was simply hanging on the wall at eye level with only a narrow rope forming a flimsy perimeter around the precious piece and a little sign hanging on it that bore the words “Do Not Touch.” As I stood alone gazing into The Starry Night, I was overcome by a malevolent desire to break the rules and touch it. When I finally found the infamous painting, I was astounded by how exposed and unprotected it was. My art teacher had taught a unit on Van Gogh and I genuinely liked the deep blue colors in painting and was fascinated by an artist who would cut off his ear and mail it to a brothel. Other than The Mona Lisa, it was the only painting in the world that I would have recognized. But there was one piece of real art in that museum that I wanted to see: Vincent Van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. Now maybe some of you understand or even like modern art, but I was personally baffled by the outrageous exhibits that they classified as art. (But what my sophomoric mind failed to realize was that our trip coincided with spring break and there wasn’t a single college girl left on the campus.) Well, at least I got to see the Statue of Liberty.ĭuring that trip we spent a whole afternoon meandering through the Museum of Modern Art. Back in those days I wasn’t very studious and I wasn’t particularly interested in the academic portion of the trip, apart from trying to meet some college girls. When I was a sophomore in high school, my journalism class took a trip to Columbia University in New York City to attend a three-day journalism convention and to do some sight-seeing in the Big Apple. Psalm 24:3-4-Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
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