Weighing In On A Slight "Slight"

Years ago when I was instructing martial arts to police officers, I had a student in the training class who was comparing the difficulty of taking control of someone who was really big with someone that has a “slight” build…at which point she aimed her finger at ME as an example of the “slight” build!  Just days before my doctor had just told me that I was overweight by all standards and needed to lose at least 15 pounds to be on the mark.  So what was she talking about!  My build wasn’t “slight.”  It was a silly thing to react to, but I think its implications are more serious than they might seem.

People in America are so overweight that we consider ourselves, or someone else, normal or even thin when they really are not, and I think we are so influenced by the society that we live in that we have trouble distinguishing what is correct in matters way beyond just how much we weigh. The same issue applies to the relativism we apply to our behaviors.  “It’s OK because everyone does it!”  So that unreported income and underpayment of our real income tax due, the excessive amount of alcohol we all consumed at that “great” party at Joe’s house, that lie we told to keep from getting into trouble at home, that person we flirted with outrageously at work or even maybe slept with while our spouse was out of town—they all become normal and we tell ourselves we are OK.  How often is that kind of moral relativism taking over our lives because of what we learn from the media and others’ presentations and opinions?

The only real standard to measure against is God’s word.  It becomes the “weight chart,” so to speak, that we need to measure ourselves against.  The only way to do that is to read it and listen to it, instead of reading and listening to what the world offers.  Let it become the seed on the good ground that flourishes and grows in your life.