Do I Ultimately Decide What’s Right or Wrong for Me?
August 29, 2023
Katherine Schultz
Do I decide what’s right or wrong for me? Do you? Or do I decide for you? How does anyone decide what’s right or wrong?
Sonnet
For 16 years, Sonnet the Australian shepherd was part of our lives. Sweet, smart, and gentle, she welcomed us home daily. But in her early puppy years, we were concerned she would get away from us and with her speed, we’d never catch her. We didn’t have a fenced yard, so we bought an invisible fence kit and laid out the wires above ground for the training period as the instructions said. On the first day we had it turned on, we were out in the yard and had her on a lead when she saw a squirrel and started to pull toward it. We looked at each other and said, why not now, and ran with her toward the squirrel.
She ran for it. And when she got to the wire line, she jumped straight up in the air… and seemed to hang there, getting shocked the whole time. We went and pulled her back inside the yard out of range of the wire, and she headed for the door, wanting inside. She went straight to her safe spot under the bed, and stayed there for a long time, refusing to come out.
We Were the Wimps
Yes, eventually, she came out from under the bed, but we learned something. We were not the right people to train a dog on that system. We packed it back up, and returned it. She did fine in the yard on a long cable for her whole life. We were the wimps.
Boundaries for Right and Wrong
But that’s not why I tell this story today. I tell it because it illustrates the idea of boundaries. The safest place for Sonnet was inside the yard. If she got too near the boundary line wire, she got a little buzz of a reminder that it wasn’t safe to go there. That she should turn around and head back to safety.
Who Decides Where Boundaries Should Be?
And she wasn’t the one to decide where the boundary should be. That was our job (and of course was defined by the property line, too).
I think it’s similar when we think about the boundaries of right and wrong. We don’t set those, because it’s not our role, not our property. God, who created everything is the one who knows what is best for us, where we are safest. And he gives us a little buzz of a reminder if we get too close to the boundary between right and wrong – we call it “pricking our conscience.” And the best place for us is in the center of what is right, not at the edge of what is wrong.
Boundaries of Right and Wrong Are Not Just “for Me”
So when we think about what is right and wrong, we are not the ones who ultimately determine what is right and wrong. And it’s also not a matter of deciding what is right or wrong “for me.” Right and wrong has to be settled by something bigger than an individual person, or there is no way to determine what to do if there is a disagreement on boundaries.
Likewise, boundaries can’t be determined by groups of people (lawyers, politicians, governments). Same problem: who decides which group is right? It can’t be the most powerful, or the most numerous – that alone can’t determine that it’s right. Right and wrong has to be determined by something outside of human experience, and that puts it in the hands of God (Psalm 50).
Wimps
We were the wimps when it came to setting the boundaries for Sonnet. Because we didn’t want to see her get hurt–even though it was probably actually safest for her to have clear boundaries in the yard, and the fence system would have given her more freedom than the cable system we used. When it comes to setting boundaries for people, it can be the same. We think we know where the “safe” zone is. But it comes with more restrictions, less actual freedom, and possibly, more pain, than God’s boundaries.
Now What?
Questions like who determines right from wrong are a part of any worldview. If you are interested in learning more about understanding a person’s worldview, check out these articles.
And if you work with students to develop a biblical worldview, we’d love to share a resource you can use in your class, small group, or church youth group. Check out the pdf below for some questions to get you started.
#3dws #biblicalworldview #moralboundaries
