A World Turned Gray

 

New Year’s resolutions have almost become a thing of the past. The promises we used to commit ourselves to change or improve a part of our life has lost its positive possibilities in this world gone gray in nearly every facet of living. Words and phrases have become lipstick and mascara on what used to be thought of as shameful behavior. Adultery and fornication are now looked upon as recreational extra-marital affairs and sexual experimentation. Promiscuity is nothing more than “hooking up” and hopefully engaging in “safe sex”. The LGBTQIA+ has become so confusingly inclusive to itself as an organization, a plus has been added less they offend someone’s unknown “alternative lifestyle”. Their relationships are no longer described as perverse or deviant but are rather touted as “free expressions of an alternative lifestyle” that everyone else must celebrate. No one steals anymore. But there are those misguided souls involved in petty larceny, suffering from kleptomania, or perhaps overcome by embezzlement, creative bookkeeping, or the misappropriation of funds. People don’t lie – they shade the truth. Politicians don’t lie – they spin the facts. Governments don’t lie – they fuel massive disinformation campaigns. Drunkards have become alcoholics. Drug addicts have become substance dependent. The story is told that Confucius, when asked what his first deed would be if he were to be made Emperor of China, replied, “I would re-establish the precise meaning of words.” Much could be said for this idea. Stripped of accuracy, language becomes impotent. When the world goes gray, and vagueness engulfs the land, confusion takes hold. No one is quite sure what is right and what is wrong; or, indeed, if anything is wrong, except the bigotry of suggesting that some things may be wrong. Truth is easily hedged, and responsibility avoided when words lose their meaning (vaccination) and become so elasticized so as to mean almost anything, and/or nothing.

In the movie, “The Alamo,” starring none other than John Wayne, the Duke’s character was that great hero of Texas, Davey Crockett. Although from Tennessee, Crockett has been revered by Texans and they even named a county after him because of his heroic stand at the Alamo. In the movie, the Duke as Crockett said, “There’s right and there’s wrong. If you do right, you are really living; and if you do wrong, you are as dead as a beaver hat.” Possible words to live by – don’t you think?

[James 4:17] James, the half-brother of Jesus said basically the same thing: “Therefore, to him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Satan is hard at work to influence us to do the wrong thing in every circumstance. Sometimes he even attempts to get us to do the right thing, but for the wrong reason. For example, Jesus warned, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward form your Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:1). He mentioned the way we pray: “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward” (Matthew 6:5). Whether it is doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons, or the right things for the wrong reasons …it is still wrong. In every situation, there is right and there is wrong. We make the choice of which direction we go with our actions. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were experts at creating legal loopholes. Jesus said, “But let your “Yes” be “Yes”, and your “No”, “No”. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37). Remember, truth is truth regardless of what men may say or how they may say it.