Dear Editor,
We live in a world where there is a lot of talk about right and wrong, good and evil and judging. I wonder how many of us consider the fact that all of these words assume a standard? Do we even dare ask where that standard came from and who would have drafted it up?
Whether we like it or not, the origin of those words and that standard began in the creation of a garden, thousands of years ago. At that time someone who called himself, “I am” because he is and was and is to come, he does not change; began a beginning. And right there in the beginning he established rules and laws and a standard for how things would work. He created the laws like the laws of gravity, the laws of ecology and the laws of interpersonal relationships. If we’ve studied any of the areas of microbiology or the nuclear sciences, we know how important rules and laws are.
I have to wonder how many of us would get on a plane with a pilot who does not understand or does not feel like obeying the laws of gravity? Would you frequent a store which wanted to change the laws or standard of measurement? Would you settle for what someone felt was a metre or litre rather than submit to the set standard?
These are difficult discussions to have, no doubt, because our feelings are an important part of who we are. But should we be letting our feelings define who we are? I’m sure we’ve all had the experience in traffic when you look down for a moment and the vehilcle beside you begins to move giving you the feeling you are moving? What if you acted on those feelings? Right in that moment your feeling can be very dangerous. It is important in that moment of uncertainty to look for a point of reference to find something that doesn’t move.
It is no different in the world of good and evil. Who or what defines our reference point? Who or what can we look to that does not change?
For a lot of us today that reference point is still he who called himself, “I am”” he isn’t only a reference point. He promised to come to us when we need to find peace, when we have strayed from that reference point and feel so disoriented and messed up. The wonderful point about a reliable reference point is that it defines reality, the truth.
We have every intention of being part of the “tolerant”, the “loving” in society, but what if we know that we are boarding a proverbial plane that is attempting to fly against the law of gravity. We know this experiment isn’t going to end well. It’s been tried before and the question, “did God really say?” has been asked before too, way back in the beginning.
Respectfully,
Christina VanderZyl
Barrhead
