I went to a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery last week. As you would expect, it was a somber experience filled with military honors and traditions. When we were departing, we noticed two young people taking a “selfie” with a coffin in the background.
To say I was shocked was an understatement.
Is this where we are in society? We take selfies at funerals? We videotape young children in fights? We try to be the 1st to post accidents on social media? Rather than becoming a first responder, we want to be the first reporter?
Have we lost all common sense or are we in a spiral where we’ve failed to teach others boundaries?
The Bible’s book of Judges illustrates the mess that humans can make when we lack boundaries. “Everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes” Judges 21:25. This was a time in Israel when there wasn’t a king who was able to set the structure for society to follow. Thus, everyone starts making their own structure rather than turning to God for structure.
Essentially we start to see a scenario when man’s “anything-goes” attitude is used in place of God’s stand for what is acceptable and what is not. When we have unstructured thought and behavior, harm results. Isaiah 5:20-21 warns of what comes to people and nations as a result of this attitude. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”
I understand that cultures change and evolve. In most regards, there are positive advancements; women can vote, slavery was abolished, public school accessible to everyone, liberty granted to all (just as a few examples).
But a lack of boundaries in our nation has allowed cursing on network television, roadside signs of scantily clothed women, questionable music lyrics, ‘PG’ movies that would have been ‘R’ 20 years ago…and selfies at a funeral.
While the world seems to be going nuts, we are blessed to have the book of standards that creates boundaries; the Bible.
At any point that behavior seems questionable, we only need to go back to the Bible.
At any point that we feel boundaries lacking, we only need to go back to the Bible.
At any point we question authority, we only need to go back to the Bible.
I can’t control young selfie-takers; nor can I control what their parents teach them. I can control myself and what I teach my own child. I want the Godly boundaries in our life. I need only go back to the Bible to define those.
~Emily
Iron Porch 