It’s four weeks until Election Day so I thought this post might be a timely one. Enjoy!
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People often have different opinions on certain issues. Should bicycle and motorcycle riders be required to wear protective gear? Should cursive writing still be taught, or is it unnecessary? Then there are the “hot-button” issues, which I will not list here. Because the question I’d like to ask is, “What do you use as your guidance to form opinions and make decisions?”
Do you decide things based on popular opinion? Do you go with the majority vote? (This is, after all, an election year.) Or, does it just “depend on the situation”? Is something wrong only some of the time, and permissible other times? Is it alright to do something as long as the law says it’s legal? Or do you look to a standard which doesn’t change with every wind that blows?
Too many times in history, people have been led to do atrocious things because someone said it was okay, or that it was a good idea. An easy example is Hitler leading the German nation to do horrific things. He said it was a good idea to get rid of whole classes of people. The oft refrained excuse was, “I was just following orders”.
When it comes to electing leaders, sometimes people who have serious issues with integrity in their “private lives” are given a pass because “They’re smart, they know how to get things done”. If they can’t handle their private lives properly, then how can they be expected to handle their public lives well?
As for me, as best I understand, I base my opinions on standards which don’t change. And that guidance is the Bible. It is something timeless which I can depend on. I operate on faith. (See my previous blog “Believing Is Seeing”.)
You may say, “But that’s SO outdated”, or, “That’s just people’s opinions from thousands of years ago”. But let me ask, “What is outdated about treating other people the way I’d like to be treated? Is it passé to be honest, or kind, or to have integrity? Is it a character flaw to be faithful to your word?” What if someone comes along and says the norm is to lie when it’s convenient? What if they say you should get what you want, and if you stomp all over other people to do it, well, too bad, so sad. Living that way, you’d never know who you could trust and who you couldn’t. Today they might be your best friend; tomorrow, they might happily stab you in the back.
So think about the frame of reference which guides you. Is it based on changeable whim, or on something firm and sure?