Let’s talk about standards.
A while ago, my youngest child, Nathan, who is six, came up to me on a Saturday afternoon, complaining that he had not gotten to play on the X-box yet that day and, because of this, he thought that the world was about to end. After a little investigation, I found out why he hadn’t gotten to play yet. Our five kids had worked out a rotation of turns for playing the X-box that day, a specific order of who would play when and the amount of time for them to play. They had all discussed this and all agreed to it. The reason that Nate hadn’t yet gotten to play was that it simply wasn’t his turn yet. When I asked him about it, he agreed that this was so. He fully understood why having turns was necessary and he admitted that he had agreed to his turn being set when it was. With great exasperation in his voice, he then added “but I haven’t gotten to play at all today”. He had gotten tired of the way things were supposed to work and he wanted what he wanted and he wanted it now. As a parent, I believe in enforcing rules and standards and so he did not end up getting to play until it was his turn, which was something he wasn’t happy about but he did accept it.
I don’t know about you but I can often identify with Nate. There are established standards concerning what is acceptable for me to do and how I can go about doing it. Sometimes, those standards can feel a bit too constraining. I find myself in situations where I know how things are supposed to work and, if I really think about it, I usually understand why they are supposed to work that way. However, when those standards impact me and what I need to do or want to do at that moment, I sometimes don’t want to conform to the standards. I want what I want and I want it to be on my time table.
I bet you can identify with Nate too. Most of us understand that it is necessary for there to be standards of conduct but we often don’t like having to abide by those standards when they start to negatively impact us or those we care about. In today’s culture, some of us are starting to not like the standards so much that we decide that there shouldn’t be standards. This is especially true of the most important standard, God’s Word.
There are human relationships which are meant to reflect our relationship with God. One of those relationships is the relationship between parent and child. We have standards and rules that Nathan doesn’t like other than just that he can’t play X-box any time he wants. He can’t eat cookies and chips all day. He has a rigidly set bed time. He has to finish his homework before he can play. He sometimes doesn’t like these things and they sometimes make him unhappy but we enforce these standards because we know that these things are best for him and we love him enough to care about his well being more than we care about his happiness. Anyone understands about such things.
It’s the same way with us and God but we sometimes don’t understand about that. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to endure suffering that we can’t even comprehend, in order to take the punishment for our sins in our place. Anyone who loves us that much would not set down rules and guidelines in order to make us unhappy or to enjoy life less. However, He loves us enough that our well being, especially our eternal well being, is His primary concern, not our happiness.
Just as Nathan doesn’t always understand my rules, I sometimes don’t understand God’s standards. Even though Nathan sometimes thinks he knows what is best for him, I better know what is best for him. If I would let him, he would love to eat cookies and chips all day long and go to bed whenever he wants. I know that letting him pursue that path would lead to obesity and diabetes and generally poor health. As my child, Nathan doesn’t always have to understand but he does have to obey. We don’t always have to understand God’s standards either but understanding is not necessary for obedience. He has reasons for those standards, even though we may not always know or understand those reasons.
We often think we’re doing pretty good on our own and so we don’t really seek God’s help, especially in the little day to day decisions of living life or when we’re not having any particularly big problems at the moment. Isaiah 55:8 says “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord”. Proverbs 14:12 says “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death”. God does not think the way we think and His way is always best. Our way, no matter how good it may feel at the moment, leads to spiritual death. We must make His ways our ways. In order to do that, we have to get to know Him. In order to do that, we have to spend time in His Word.
There is much to say about God’s specific standards in His Word but I’m not going to do that in this post. I’m simply going to challenge you to reflect on the fact that His Word is the true standard of what is right. I’m going to challenge you to start studying His Word, every day, in order to find out about what He says is right and what He says is wrong. As you do this, ask for help and look for resources that can help you to better understand what you are studying. In time, you will come to better understand why God sets the standards that He does. You won’t understand everything though. In the end, on any given subject, even if you don’t understand, I challenge you to obey anyway. After all, it is obedience in the absence of understanding that really defines faith.
Put some effort into really getting to know Him, trust that He always knows best, even when it’s hard, and watch what He does in your life as a result.
