“Cold, light, and selfish in the last resort, he had that modicum of prudence, miscalled morality, which keeps a man from inconvenient drunkenness or punishable theft.”
(excerpt from The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson)

What a man is when he is surprised is often the only way to see what he is.  Self righteousness is actually self discipline and self control rolled up in a tightly bound package.  But there is always a thread hanging out of that package and a time will come when a misstep here or there causes it to snag.  Nothing is as awful to see as the rapid unwinding of a man’s righteousness in the midst of a seemingly insignificant moment.  Give me a righteousness not my own to create or maintain; one that lasts and cannot come unwound.  Give me more than prudence, give me Christ and all that goes with him.