A Cup of Grace – with a shot of espresso

Not too long ago, I passed a business that had closed over a year ago. The owner of this former business is somewhat infamous. His arrogance and disregard for anyone else is really remarkable.  My husband says his parents are good, down to earth folks. I don’t know them. I know nothing of this man’s upbringing, and I am certainly not here to cast stones at his parents. He is responsible for his own behavior. But it made me wonder: what happened to his moral compass?

For Christians, the true north of our moral compass ought to be our trust in God and His truth. If what we say, think, do, doesn’t align with what is taught in scripture, we can be assured that we need to make adjustments.  We don’t get to randomly decide whether something is right or wrong because it feels right or wrong to us. 

American culture has been deeply influenced by the Bible. Our sense of justice, our belief in the value of people, our belief in defending the oppressed, our care for nature and animals are all rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic. However, there has long been a movement away from the Christian faith. As we have left God and the Bible behind, we have also left the magnetic north that determined our ability to see right from wrong. 

In 2009 an article titled “Walking Straight Into Circles” was published in Science Direct. The writers had run studies on what happened when a person was placed in either a large forest or a desert and asked to walk in a particular direction. What they found was that if the person had no reference to the sun, they would walk in circles. If they had the sun, they might not walk a straight line, but they did not walk in circles.

Obviously, if they had been given a compass, their progress would have been straight regardless of the presence of the sun. But they didn’t, and each was left to figure it out on their own. Each one failed.

Imagine now if a group had traveled together, each had a compass, but each compass had been assigned a different “north”. There certainly would be arguments as to which was correct. The direction chosen would not be based on which compass was the most correct but which voice was the most powerfully convincing.

That really is a good picture of where we are today. Just as we have no internal compass for finding physical direction, so too, apart from Christ, we have no internal moral compass. So when the outside measurement of God and the Bible are removed, it’s like being without the sun or a compass in a vast wilderness. And there are lots of competing voices.

The moral needle of society now swings wildly about. There is no consistency. As humans we are very good at justifying anything we want to. We do “what is right in our own eyes.” And we feel morally superior to those who do differently. This schism of “morality” leads instead to virulent hate speech and intolerance of anyone who thinks differently. Christianity has been rejected, but make no mistake, new “religious” voices have replaced it, each complete with its different sects.

There is a form of legalism but with no loving God to teach humility, compassion, and forgiveness. When God is your standard, we are all in the same position before Him. The truly honest believer knows that she is no better than anyone else. She too falls short. Without God, each person is her own standard, and woe to anyone who falls short.

So here we are. Many have thrown out the compass altogether, pretty sure they have a good strong sense of direction. These are the ones who are vociferously intolerant of any use of a compass apart from their own logic. The Bible refers to them as “lost” for a reason. They are wandering in the desert with no point of reference.

For others, God has been pushed aside or exchanged for something less definitive. They have a misty concept of “spiritual.” However, when God becomes nothing more than a vague force, He is no longer seen as personal or having any authority to set the direction of moral choices. Those are left to “instinct” and feeling.

This approach has the same problem as those who deny God. No authority means no standard, and we are each left free to determine “whatever is right for us.” It’s one of those slogans that sounds good in theory. In practice, however, it leads to a mess as our differing stances clash.  The Bible puts a point on it when it says, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” Proverbs 14:12. (NKJV)

So what do you use to determine what is right and wrong in your own life?  If I’m honest, it’s easy to ignore the commands of the Bible that make me uncomfortable. I am very good at finding excuses as to why they don’t apply to me in my situation. But God’s laws stand the test of time because, though cultures change, human nature does not. 

As God’s child, I am held to the standard of His compass.  I don’t get to decide what I think is right and wrong. His standard is completely apart from me. This is not a popular stance these days. But that makes it no less true.

What I’ve come to understand, and this makes all the difference in my perspective, is that God’s laws are not arbitrary and constricting.  Rather, they are the true point from which we can take direction. They are for OUR good not His controlling pleasure. They protect us from some of the devastating consequences of sin.  They keep us from getting lost in a wilderness of choices. I only have one voice I need to pay close attention to: God’s.

In navigation stopping to check is called orientation and taking a bearing. This means taking a moment to look at the compass and map and acknowledge where you are. As you do that, you determine where you want or need to be and set your bearing, your direction. In our lives, failure to admit being off course, sin, only delays and hinders our ability to head in a right direction as well as healing from the consequences.

This is a reminder that we need to regularly stop to orient ourselves and take a bearing. There are lots of voices, both internal and external, that would push or pull us off course. Is our moral compass and direction aligned with God’s Word? God and His Word will always point us to true north. Are you reading His Word and talking to Him about where you are? Are you willing to assess and realign your life with His directions? A compass is useless if we never use it for its intended purpose.