Relativity

 

Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. (Psalm 119:165)

          Every time my life gets disrupted – even a planned disruption – I tend to feel as though I have to start all over, building from scratch. Clearly, that’s not true. Much of my life continues as it has. I don’t have to go back to school. I still have the benefit of my experiences. I still have probably 99.99% of what I had before the disruption, but I feel like I have to start over. In some cases, starting over might even be a good thing, but I don’t do it. I just take up with things as the disruption has made them and go on with my day.

          But can you imagine if you had to approach each decision as completely new, requiring a complete analysis? If, as some claim, everything is relative, we would seem to have two choices. The first is just to go with our feelings at the time. Honestly, this is often what we do. The second is to go through something like a flow chart. You answer yes or no to each box and follow the arrows until you reach a conclusion.

          I have yet to find a flow chart to use, but imagine having to take the time to go through a chart with each decision. This is the reason I suspect that even relativists aren’t really relativists. It’s exhausting. Most of us will default to an ethical system based on our upbringing, but where does it come from? On what basis do we evaluate it?

          This is one of the reasons I love God’s Word. It has formed a foundation for moral and ethical decisions for a long time and has been proven repeatedly to be a sound foundation. Once it is yours, you don’t have to go back to the beginning every time, which means your life is far more peaceful.