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The 15% Rule

Jan 26, 2010 Print This Post

(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mabi/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

So I’m watching Modern Family last week and one of the characters ends the episode with this quote:

“Can people change? I don’t know. People are who they are, give or take 15%. That’s how much people can change if they really want to. Whether it’s for themselves or the people they love…yeah, 15%. But you know what? Sometimes that’s just enough.”

There was something I liked about that and something I didn’t.

What I Liked About That – Everyone is wired in a unique way, which is a great thing. Unfortunately, a trait that one person finds charming is the same exact trait that annoys the daylights out of another person. More importantly, we all have things we excel at and struggle with. And for many of us, they are the same things we excel at and struggle with our entire lives. Paul says it this way:

Romans 7: 15-19 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.​ I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

What I Didn’t Like About That – Scripture teaches us that people can change a lot (even those things that many of us think can’t be changed). Again, from Paul:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Hmmm…I think Paul would have liked and not liked that quote, too.