May 30, 2008
3 reasons to avoid using inconsistency as a mark against an idea or person.
1. Consistency and value don’t correlate.
2. Everybody’s inconsistent, so nobody denounces inconsistency consistently.
3. If inconsistency is truly unacceptable, there are no glorious paradoxes.
There is a difference between full consistency (impossible) and reasonable consistency. Our required level of consistency varies depending on our task – e.g. brain surgery vs. writing poetry vs. theology.
I disagree with your initial comment, but only because I would change ‘avoid’ to ‘limit .’ Consistency is important, however it is more of an adjective and less of a virtue.
Wouldn’t we want to say that God is consistent? He never contradicts himself, has internal conflict, or changes. Yet–and here’s where your point is well taken–his consistency is difficult for our minds to understand. For that reason, we will often be more close to right when we hold on to what we know to be true and allow certain inconsistencies to remain unresolved.
With God, brain surgeons, poets, and everyone, wouldn’t you say it’s what they do consistently that is valuable, not their consistency itself.
A fourth reason: I want to be able to utter everything in the Psalms faithfully. To do so I have to abandon the desire to be consistent in my utterances.
Fifth Reason: I admire Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, Samson, David, Peter, Paul and Mary for their glorious inconsistency. Why not live like those we admire? Or, perhaps a better question, if we’re not as inconsistent as those we admire are we perhaps just not living fully enough?
One man’s consistency is another man’s obsession. One man’s inconsistency is another man’s balance.
We are not those who compare ourselves with ourselves. Value cannot be accurately ascertained through the inconsistent processing of the human senses. We must be forced to let God assign value, and those things about which God has not openly placed a value in writing, that also must be within the Godhead.
It seems much easier to devalue things since the shedding of responsibility accompanies that assessment.
I wasn’t really interested in this post, but noticed there’s a lot of O’s.
There’s 22 if you include the title.
Jenna,
I was just saying to Molly yesterday that I figured my most recent post were probably pretty boring to her.
She said yep.
Of course, with the each post being so short, you’re done reading it before you realize how boring it is.
So I got that going for me.
Which is nice.
Abraham – Yes, I do agree that what they/ we do is what has value, but we still described by the nature of our actions. We are confronted with this when we ascribe any adjective to a person. No person outside of Jesus has ever been 100% faithful, or holy, or good, but the Bible uses these words to describe some individuals. Therefore, even though no one can hope to be 100% consistent, in certain contexts I believe that it is an admirable trait.
That being said, I do agree with the underlying point of your post, that consistency is not a true virtue, and even more importantly inconsistency is not always bad… sometimes it is the most beautiful of all!
Brilliant!
If “consistency” means “predictability,” I would agree that it’s definitely not an inherent virtue.
But when I think of “consistency”, especially as it pertains to people, I think “integrity.” So then, someone who routinely doesn’t follow through on what they say they will do –particularly if they don’t care about how it affects the other people involved — would be considered inconsistent in my book. Then it begins to stray into irresponsibility and even sin.
Agreed: “Consistency” requires context and content before assigning (definitive) value or virtue.
However, the common understanding of the word in the christian and non-christian cultures I’ve been in is a positive one. And if used negatively requires a qualifying term – (“consistently late”) whereas no qualifying term is usually needed in most cases when the word is used as a solo descriptor – it’s assumed/understood to be a positive adjective.
oops on the face
Adam,
I think you’re absolutely right about the use of the word “consistent.”
My concern is when inconsistency is used as a sort of end-all argument against an idea or, worse, a person’s character.
Dylan on consistency:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1lBM_GMBEI&feature=related
I took your advice and got OH, MERCY. Good suggestion.
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