In quantum morality, we each carry a limited liability. The trick is to learn the limits, not mythologize them.
Yesterday was my run day, but with the route still buried under ice and snow, I took it to the gym. On the treadmill my t-shirt lettering was painfully obvious to all. This is a dark blue fabric with four-inch white letters, all caps. Front side: “SIN KILLS” and on the back “REPENT & LIVE”. Given the cultural location and clientele of the place, no one batted an eye. Lots of church-goers there. Most of them were sure they knew exactly what the message meant.
In a sense, they were correct. Had some smart-ass wanted to challenge me, I was ready, having heard it plenty of times before. The favorite line goes something like, “Just what is it I am supposed to repent from?” My typical response is: You have a conscience. God can speak to you just as well as He does anyone else. If you don’t obey the limited understanding you have today where you are, there’s no reason to expect you’ll get anywhere trying to understand better. Given the title of this blog, I do spend plenty of electrons explaining what moral behavior looks like. However, the contextual point of that t-shirt was calling attention to the very notion itself of what sin is.
We are altogether blessed when we can ascertain in any given moment what gives us peace with God. The Bible soaks you in the idea that God meets you more than half-way. It’s not really a question of the particulars, but the desire. I taught that way back when I was trying to qualify as a Baptist pastor, many years ago. I knew it was true, but had no idea back then where it would carry me. Today I eschew theology itself, as commonly defined, never mind sects and denominations of Christian religion. I won’t tell you they are wrong for you, just wrong for me. I can’t take upon myself liability for where truth carries you; my duty is to announce the message God places in my mouth.
This applies in all directions. Think of your own progeny, in theory if you don’t actually have any. You don’t own your kids, but you do have a duty from God. They are blessings loaned from Him to you for a short time. At the earliest stages, much is required of you. The power and liability to correct very closely weighs heavily upon you. There are some general ideas, but the actual technique is really for you to construct as you go. Far, far earlier than most Western Christians imagine, that child has already begun to slip out of your hands. If your boundaries were unrealistic early on, life can be hell long before they actually leave your care.
Most people fail to realize their mission is to launch those lives, not to maintain some fierce control over every detail of the results. Here’s an example of someone who gets it. This fellow knows that his daughter is on the threshold and must know how to claim her own destiny in Christ. Not in the absolute sense of how it will be in all contexts, but this man knows what to do in the world as it is now. It would be hard to find a better example. Compared to most of the other manosphere/Game windbags, this fellow is far closer to the revelation of God.
The average American Christian parent is light-years from such wisdom. They are typically dangerously bad influences on their own children. It’s not that they don’t achieve what they seek in some ways, but they achieve too often the wrong thing. They don’t value the rich treasures of what God really offers in the opportunity to raise children. Instead, they think the child itself is their main treasure and that’s morally demeaning to the kids. Your treasure is the mission to glorify God. If you don’t give Him enough room to work in those kids, you don’t grant space for the glory He wants to pour out in your life. And while many of these parents obsess over things they can’t and shouldn’t want to control, they are too damned lazy to bear the sorrow of things they can and should.
The same goes for my prophetic t-shirts and my message here. Mock me, but don’t you dare copy me. How I went about gaining peace with God is an example — a parable and symbol — of what you can have for yourself. But it’s all between you and Him. My duty is not based on some liability of how you’ll act or what you’ll accomplish. My duty is to reflect His glory so that you’ll want your own dose of it.
All I can possibly do in this fallen world, and with this fallen flesh, is embrace the moral liability of making myself stay within the boundaries God drew for me.
