If you are self-directed and want to do right, which route would you take as you set sail for Port Righteousness? It's a bit "iffy" to presume on our common sense alone to be North Star...the Book says our thoughts are not like God's thoughts. Those who do not ask Him for direction may be busy expending energy, but not getting anywhere. I tried doing what I considered "good" for thirty years. It made me feel better about myself for a while, but needed constant work to maintain. That's because we were not made to please ourselves, but to highlight and please the One who loved us first. Then our thirst for righteousness is satisfied.That's why a life in God's hands is so necessary. He made each life individual and with special gifting for special circumstances. It's like a hand in a glove. So why wouldn't a person ask for help in finding their way? Is it like a man driving a car...lost, but unwilling to ask for directions? Yes! Pride is our enemy and the enemy of God. Pride caused God's #1 angel to swell up and actually try to take God's position. That coup failed, so now that fallen angel is "misery looking for company" among us. And the bait is the same old leavening agent...pride. Pride is sure powerful. And it can be spiritually fatal.
Could that be why people are so passionate these days about alternate causes? With a few notable sociopathic exceptions, most people want to feel good about themselves. They sense the need for a cause bigger than self. But if they haven't taken advantage of divine light to find their reason for being, they're dressing themselves in good works that may seem laudable, but may not be what the Lord had in mind at all.
Consider some fashionable causes that are in vogue. What about the cause of the protected smelt fish. Did God say they were more important than mankind, His highest creation? What "righteous cause" puts an endangered animal above those Californians who need water for farm irrigation (their very lifeblood)?
Or what about the torture issue? Smarting from a perceived lack of patriotism due to positions on the war, troop strength, and value of joining the service, some Americans needed a righteous military cause. The torture issue is perfect. It is safe and high moral ground. When one side says "the United States does not torture"...that leaves the other side looking despicable. Trouble is, there is no consensus about what constitutes torture. Not everyone thinks waterboarding is torture. It would be a safe bet that if I had a choice to be tortured by the Iranians or by the Americans, I could see this issue more clearly.
There is much passion around the cause that insists a woman should have a right to choose. That passion isn't proven by science...or even supported by simple observation (see YouTube video "The Silent Scream"). When God came, was His cause to promote "rights"? Did Jesus die that we might have the right to have our own way? No...Jesus sweat blood to submit His will to the Father.
And then there is the mother of all glam causes...the concern for global warming. Recently this cause seems to be coming unraveled.
Global warming was a bloated assumption that man was powerful and important enough to ruin the planet. Stay tuned for more on that...
So how DO we pick our causes? We need to be about finding out what God is passionate about so that our thinking can be reshaped. We were made to put God at the center of our lives and listen to what He counts as righteous. How does the old hymn go? "Living for Jesus, a life that is true...striving to please Him in all that I do...yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free..this is the pathway of blessing for me." Jesus the Designer knows where each person's gifting "fits".
The bottom line is that we don't get to say what is righteous; He does. Righteousness flows out of following His lead. And the bonus promise He throws in...is that we will not thirst for righteousness anymore.
Jesus said "I am the Bread of life. The person who aligns with Me hungers no more and thirsts no more." John 6:35
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