dailydatewithgod

From the black and white perspective on life there is a clear boundary between right and wrong.  This is helpful as a child when the groundwork is being laid to understand how to operate in the world.  The difficulty comes as we mature because we learn how much color and grey exist in the world.  It is harder to rely upon everything being simply good or bad for the very reason that it is a simplistic view of the universe.  The reality is there are so many variations of everything. As we grow up and learn to take full responsibility for our lives, the right versus wrong distinction is less helpful. We can all think of circumstances in which we did something that is technically bad but for what we believe to be a good reason.  In other words, it worked for us to do the wrong thing.  I know we don’t like admitting to such things but it doesn’t make it any less true.  How else can we explain “bad” behavior on the part of clearly rational and mature adults?  We are motivated by things we perceive as working for us.  By bringing God into the conversation about what we are doing that is working we have an opportunity to engage in clarity for ourselves.  Instead of keeping God out because we know we are being “bad” we can invite God in to help us take a look at how it is working for us.  Sometimes without a closer look we only see what it is doing for us without recognizing what it is doing to us.  God does not have the judgment we assign to him. She is interested in the clarity coming from an honest examination of the full spectrum of our experience.  With God’s help we can open up the conversation to determine if what is working for us is also working for the truth of who we are within ourselves.