It has dawned on me in recent years that without some sort of boundaries, the human condition would be unbearable and intolerable. I don’t think we could stand ourselves, let alone anyone else, if we were left to our own natural impulses, free to roam about the planet in search of satisfying the selfishness we are born with and cannot silence within us for more than fleeting moments. Our personal journeys in life would quickly become haphazard trails of greed, lust, anger and contempt, marked along the way by incredibly dangerous and ignorant activities that defied common sense and any traces of morality.
But I am watching in real time as we come closer to the edge of this cliff in America, as each new generation is welcomed into our country with less and less encouragement to become responsible for their own actions. In our efforts to make things easier for new generations, we are actually making it more difficult for them to live out a meaningful life, as one by one we try to remove the character building hurdles that young people need to experience to more fully understand themselves and their neighbors and each other’s responsibility to the culture around them. There just aren’t any shortcuts to character building. Real character has to be built block by block, tested and proven all along the way, and only then can it become a part of who we are.
Humans need a purpose for their lives, and walls around them. It’s just that simple. Without known boundaries it is difficult to know when you have gone too far for your own good, and it is impossible to predict what another human might do that you live in community with. We just weren’t designed to free roam the planet, let alone wander around undisciplined through the lives of others as we seek to satisfy our own selfish pursuits. History books are filled with the disastrous accounts of cultures out of control where pleasure tore down the walls of morality and civility, giving way to chaos for all.
As it turns out, the easier it is for people to exist, the lazier and less passionate they become about having goals and maintaining a direction in life, which as the Bible correctly asserts, does not prove to be a good thing to be so idle as to become bored and distracted from our purpose on the planet, giving way to our naturally wondering minds to get into all sorts of unhealthy troubles. And there’s that reference to the Bible … why bring the Bible up?
What is it about the Bible that so angers people in America as to make them work hard to reduce it’s impact on our culture and minimize it’s influence on young people? This is not a mystery to anyone who has had even limited exposure to the Bible and it’s teachings and has given much thought as to how it relates to all of us in America today, or any other day. The Bible, simply put, is a pesky nuisance to the unbridled pursuits of selfishness, of which America has a tremendous struggle because of our freedom and prosperity.
The Bible is not simply a book filled with incredible tales of miracles and otherworldly events. The Bible is a book filled with spot-on insights into the human condition and how people are designed to exist during the brief period of time we are given on the planet. In order to understand the Bible, you first have to understand that you were created, for a purpose, and your life has a direction with a beginning, a middle and an end. And that the Creator was in control of the design and knows how the design works and doesn’t work. Anyone who gives the teachings of the Bible an honest chance to prove itself in their own lives finds out rather quickly that it is accurate and wildly beneficial to both physical and mental health. It is a book of wisdom, filled with valuable tools for building the kind of character that great men and women throughout American history credited for helping them navigate their journeys to greatness in the eyes of the citizens of this country, and as a result, helped those people guide the growth of Our Land into a beacon of freedom and hope for the entire planet.
And importantly for our times, the Bible gives each of us a purpose for being here, in the place we currently find ourselves, with the task of becoming better persons, and to the bigger picture, better people with which to live in community, all with the same destination and goals in mind. The concept of the Bible centers around the fact that even though we are each unique, our reason for existing in the first place is not for our benefit, but for the pleasure of our Creator, who for whatever reason He decided to do so, caused us to need other humans.
In America, we live in society that has original boundaries firmly grounded in the teachings of the Bible. The people who founded Our Land did so to provide each of us freedoms that were being suffocated by those who sought to control the lives and thoughts of individuals. On the surface, the idea of being free but having boundaries doesn’t make sense. But true freedom is actually impossible in society without boundaries defining what is good and right and proper for everyone who resides there. In America, we have the freedom to come and go as we please within our country’s boundaries. We have the freedom to eat and enjoy recreation anywhere we want within those boundaries. We have the freedom to say and think what we want to within the boundaries of America, rights that are guaranteed by God, and documented as being understood by the founders of our country. And herein lies the peskiness of the Bible to an overly progressive society.
The Bible has defined boundaries which most often sit atop lines of human behavior. And the way we view these boundaries have much to do with our reaction to them. If we understand that God has love for His creation, and wants good for all, then we can better understand how the dos and don’ts of the Bible are an exquisite instruction manual on how best to navigate our lives for optimum chances of peace and prosperity. And for anyone who has ever bothered to see how this works and actually try it all out for themselves, it is easily proven to be true and correct, and an excellent way to live out a life.
But for those who have only limited knowledge of what is in the Bible, and have never bothered to study it in any serious fashion, it remains a pesky intrusion into the otherwise free wheeling lifestyle that so many in America are pursuing, to the ultimate peril of themselves and those around them. The overly progressive thinkers in our country may mean well, but probably don’t understand how dangerous it really is to ignore the only instruction manual ever written for the inside of mankind, which is what guides the outer man to act in accordance. Take a good look around our country today and you will surely notice that a good number of us are acting quite unruly and more so all the time, to the point that our statistics are on the increase in matters of defined crime.
To be fully transparent, the Bible seems to be a bit pesky to me too at times, as I find myself trying to do things which are in direct conflict with what I know to be contrary to what the scriptures have revealed to me over the years. And it is at these exact moments that I find my own character being either built up or torn down. And the choice is always mine. But over and over again, I have proven to myself in quiet confidence that the best choice is always to follow the direction of the Creator. I have never found Him to be wrong. Not once.
In America, we still have money imprinted with our stated trust in God. Many of our courthouses still display scriptures referencing our need for the Bible’s concepts of moral justice to guide our decisions. And in churches all across the country, people still flock to the embrace of God’s call to come to Him for guidance and comfort in times of trouble.
America is in trouble right now. Like never before. And the trouble, as always, is in the hearts of men and women who reside here. But the good news hasn’t changed. There is always hope. But hope is not now and has never been in the ideals of man. Hope is now, has always been, and will forever be in the promises of the words of God, the Creator of it all, and all of us. Promises that are written in the scriptures of the Bible for everyone’s benefit.
That book that lies between us and chaos.
That pesky Bible.
Excellent
Great article