When I was a teen, somehow I adopted the attitude that God's standards were too high and that, since I could never be that good, it was a waste of time to try. Like many people, and by some process of desensitization, I wasn't sure anymore if there was an absolute moral law. Of course, I rediscovered some time ago, with certainty, that there is a moral conduct that every person on the planet is subject to, but teaching that to the teens in my youth group is tough in this age of full-blown Relativism.
I like C.S. Lewis' Three Parts of Morality in his book Mere Christianity (Book 3, Chap. 1). He says that there are three parts to morality and that most of us only pay attention to the first. They are:
1) There should be fair play and harmony (good social relations) between individuals, groups, nations, etc.
2) Each person should work at disciplining themselves; to continue to strive to become a better individual
3) Human beings were created for a purpose and are meant to be in relationship with the Creator
He gives this analogy: We are a fleet of ships sailing in formation. The voyage is a success only if the ships do not collide with each other, if each ship remains seaworthy and has its engines in good working order, and if the fleet reaches its correct destination. If the ships keep on having collisions they will not remain seaworthy very long. On the other hand, if their steering gears are out of order they will not be able to avoid collisions. Morality, then, seems to be concerned with three things. Firstly, fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called tidying up the things on the inside of each individual. Thirdly, with what man is made for (his purpose). Modern people are nearly always thinking about the first thing and forgetting the other two. When a man says about something he wants to do, "It can't be wrong because it doesn't do anyone else any harm," he is thinking only about the first thing. Each ship in the convoy is dependent on the other. You can see in the analogy that, first, if ships collide they will not remain seaworthy and, second, if ships themselves are not in good working order, they can not help but collide. What is the good of telling the ships to turn in unison if they are so dilapidated that they can not be steered at all?
Now, comes the third part of Lewis' morality. If the fleet traveled without colliding and each ship was in proper working order, but the flotilla arrived at Calcutta instead of New York, the voyage would still be a failure. Going back to the man who says that a thing cannot be wrong unless it hurts some other human being. He understands that he must not damage the other ships in the convoy, but he honestly thinks that what he does to his own ship is simply his own business. But what if his ship is not his own property? Does it not make a great difference whether I am, so to speak, the landlord of my own mind and body, or only a tenant, responsible to the real landlord? If somebody else made me, for his own purposes, then I shall have a lot of duties which I should not have if I simply belonged to myself. We have to live our lives with the understanding that we will live forever. There are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only 70 years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live for ever. The goal of this life is to love, know, and serve God in this life so that we can be with him forever in heaven.
Do we live each day with this goal in mind? I'm a wife. My goal is to not only get myself to heaven, but my husband too. We are to help each other reach heaven. I'm also a parent. My goal is to not only get myself and my husband to heaven, but my children too. What about the teens in my youth group, my neighbors and my friends? That's an important destination! Is my fleet keeping the three parts of Lewis' morality in mind when we go about the business of living each day?
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