Right and Wrong

No matter how we try to spin it or avoid it, we all have a deep innate need to decipher right from wrong. For myself, I see right and wrong coming from three sources; what God says is right and wrong, what society says is right and wrong, and what I think is right and wrong. This seems entirely harmless until we also recognize that we like to reward 'good', and punish 'bad'. This is the core of why disagreements can be a big deal; we are trying to reward or punish based on different sets of values.

Even within these sources of proposed morality is even greater divides; what I think about how society should be ordered is almost guaranteed to be different from yours. What I think about God, even if we both agree He exists, can differ from yours. Just try to compare the doctrine of Calvin and Wesley, two very passionate men of God, and you'll see how disparate their experience and thoughts are.

So what does this all mean if it means anything at all? Well, we all want to know who is right, and I hope it's me. ;) That is, we all hope it's ourselves. For those of us that believe that God exists, we know we will find out eventually...and that can be an exciting prospect. (or terrifying) For those that think that God doesn't exist, well who cares who is right or wrong? Your chosen morality only affects your current experience.

I have a pretty high justice value. Which means my need to reward or punish is very intense. I've been trying to pull myself back from that because in the process of experiencing how our morality butts heads, I lose my peace. I get upset. So, I'm in the middle of learning how to express myself and not lose my peace when someone else loses theirs. ;) Dang it's hard! 

Steps to not lose it:

1. Realize that I can only control myself. If I get offended it's because I chose to, not because someone made me. I have power over myself, and I'm not conceding it to another.

2. I can't control other people. I can try to be sensitive, but at some point or another I will offend. It's inevitable. Again, I can only control my response.

3. I don't know everything. Someone may have a perspective or more knowledge or wisdom than I do. Honor dictates that I respect everyone, because I believe that we are all made in the image of God.

4. My experience dictates that there is something greater than all of this. 

A good friend told me this today; "When you find people not accepting you, God is happy to have you to Himself." I don't always have it right, and that's really not important anyway. I am loved, and it's my privilege to be a much-loved child. God originally wanted to give us Life, and we chose knowledge of good and evil. It's a fight that never ends, because we can never find the answer within ourselves.  The answer starts with Death, and ends with Life. 

“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward."