As I continue to think about the current situation in our world, I have been wrestling with understanding why it is so difficult for me to submit myself to this perceived new normal.
I have concluded it is my need to make my own decisions and choices that drives me. Perhaps it is this stage of life. Maybe it is my nature of being prone to “open rebellion”.
I am not alone in this. In fact, this has been the case for mankind since the Garden. Being told what to do, when to do it and how we should do it goes directly against our tendencies and can be easily manipulated.
“Open Rebellion”, is not always a bad thing. To that point, where we live and the way we have lived up to now is because of someone’s willingness to rebel. The Founders of our nation were in “open rebellion” to the King. Just as Jesus was in “open rebellion” to the religious orthodoxy and hierarchy of His day.
Though I have said, this is not always a bad thing. It does however always have a cost.
Disobedience in the Garden led to the fall of mankind. Not being loyal to the King of England cost thousands of lives and countless treasure. Jesus’s rebellion in the face of the religious leaders of His day, led Him to the Cross and ultimately to His death.
Sometimes, as in the Jesus case and in the case of our Founders, “open rebellion” is exactly what is necessary and required regardless of the cost.
The questions will always be, is the need for rebellion justified? Is it worth the cost and am I willing to pay it?
We are faced with these questions more times than we may be aware. With each new day, we decide how we live this life we have been given. Do we live according to the mandate of someone else or do we stand where we have been placed? Do we submit to certain requirements out of obedience for the betterment of all? Or do we conform out of a concern for ourselves?
The answers will be different for each of us at times, but the answers we give will be seen in the very life we live!
Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to the ways of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
