Life Follies

A main folly of the general society is the disregard for human depravity as a major factor in the knowledge, understanding and developing orientation (wisdom) for life.  The secular world refers to it as a frailty of human nature, or lack of maturity, or other terms that represent what is seen as a self-defeating characteristic that causes persons to violate excellence of thought and behavior.  The negative characteristic (labeled the sin nature in biblical terms) leading to negative motivation seems obvious.  If it were not true and present our paradigms for personal and social contexts would be different than they are.  Scripture, whether in experiential or parable word presentations, goes to the core of human imperfection to focus the point and the healing of it so to improve the lives of those acknowledging the problem and willing to counter it in both physical and spiritual solutions.  Depravity is at the root of the violations of the good life.  Without it we would not have crime, abuse, hatred, or any other factor that we commonly perceive as evil.  Evil not only is a violation of God’s meaning for mankind, but a violation within all mankind.

The problem is pervasive.  Nothing escapes it in the ongoing of nature and society.  As this is being written, a gifted young daughter, having moved out of her parental home two days before her eighteenth birthday, has sued her parents for monthly expenses, the amount needed to pay for her higher education in the school of her choice, and for some other issues to be addressed, including the costs of the lawsuit.  The first response of the court was to reject the case, but with a delayed hearing to discover what may be done. The judge in the case noted that this is a slippery slope where rebellious children, commonly appearing in society, will present a flood of cases and a shift in parental tradition that will be disastrous.  The young person is contradictory in arguing for her rights as an adult, while suing her parents for rights she would receive as a dependent child.  By voluntarily moving to the home of a girlfriend, and gaining the support of her friend’s father, she has launched a case against her parents.  The evidence at this point is that the parents have faced a rebellious daughter in the past, and made some adjustments to meet her expectations.  They apparently were willing to participate in the costs of her college education, but not her demand for an expensive institution.  She is an excellent student ranking high in her recently graduated class.

It all appeared at the beginning with: the tension between our first parents, the competition to murder between Cain and Abel, and the story expands from there.  Society is rather evenly divided between those who are called conservative and those liberal, those who believe in God and those who do not, those who believe in heaven and hell and those who do not – and so the story goes.  We know that about ten to fifteen percent of the population will be in the higher brackets of everything good in natural life.  The same percentages fall into the negative side – to fight life and society.  The large middle class is divided with  many on the margin to one side, and many leaning from the other side, and the largest group between the two leaning sides seeking normality.  It takes wisdom to manage all that in society: patience, resources, acceptance, cooperation, time, searching, knowledge, care, insight, needs, tendencies and beliefs.  It takes considerable wisdom and cooperation to meet the challenge.  We go about our tasks trying for balance. The challenge will not be met with partisanship, with selfish preferences, with bigotry and unfairness, with guesses and disregard for history, with competition and pride, with accent upon the present without a future and so the list lengthens.  In short, the carnality of society needs to be understood, not only in law that jails violators, but in the balance of righteousness.  Righteousness is a longer word for right.  Rights are related to righteousness for mankind, as holiness is right for God.  The holiness of God offers righteousness.  Out of this context God will give to nature what we need for the good life.  He provides balance to society, even for those who do not recognize his assistance or reality.  After nearly eight decades of life as a Christian and facing ranges of good and difficult circumstances, even life threatening, I remain amazed that persons do not recognize the open secret of God as our helper.  Without that help there is sufficient fault in any person to miss what God meant for mankind at the beginning.  He will win his purpose.