Who's Sailboat Are You On?

[HKHaugan]

If you will, think about three beautiful well-built sailboats carrying contracted passengers across the Gulf of Mexico.  Each of them is built to deal with storms. 

 

The first one has an experienced skipper who is familiar with storms, has the proper maps, checked weather conditions and has navigated the ocean area before.  He has a committed crew that trusts his judgment, has the storm-trained skills to work with him and all the equipment checked and properly maintained.  He’s known for his ability to handle the unexpected.

 

The second one is skippered by a salty codger who knows storms but tends to take for granted that he can handle any storm since he has done well on his own for years.  He hires a crew from available locals who he doesn’t know but believes he can handle and train on the way.  He has made a visual check of the equipment and since nothing seems wrong hopes all of it will work. 

 

The third one has a great boat too.  But he doesn’t like storms.  He avoids storms altogether.  Whenever there is a storm he simply doesn’t go out.  If asked he replies that he only goes out in good weather.  He keeps his boat shipshape more for show than anything else.

 

Now think morality and what it means to be on a pro-moral, post-moral and pre-moral sailboat. 

What kind of a boat and skipper do we want for a trip across a stormy sea?  This is when we decide, we make a choice and we have to ask ourselves, are we pro-moral, post-moral or pre-moral?  Do we ever question why we make the choices we do about our thought and behavior?  Who or what do we use to guide us through the storms facing us each day?

 

First, pro-moral means we have a moral compass, a moral framework, a moral worldview that becomes the foundation for our every next moment choices.  Christians operate in the context of a trusted skipper, the person of Jesus as He is revealed in Scripture.  When we are pro-moral we are living a declaration that Jesus is present and guiding our choices through His Holy Spirit.  From time to time circumstance will tempt us to think, feel and act differently than our moral code but we are still drawn to it and shaped by it.  It contains a system whereby we are brought back to it through repentance and forgiveness as part of our moral growth.  It presents a stability factor in the midst of a hostile culture.

 

Second, post-moral means we have rejected all objective, religious and cultural forms but, believing we can be in control of every next moment, we pick-and-choose from them a kind of personal morality that is put together for the satisfaction of the moment.  This is also what might fall in the category of what is known as post-modernism.  We become the source of our own personal truth and navigate alone without any real interchange in a sea of lonely humanity.  We tend to gravitate toward those whose mindset is similar.  ‘You do your thing, I’ll do mine and we all will just get along.’

 

Third, pre-moral means we are still drifting, avoiding or denying the need for a consistent moral base. Nor have we made any personal excursions into the sea of ideas about morality.  We may not have been as yet internally confronted by the demand for a statement of personal belief.  Whatever the reason, a pre-moral mind assumes a post-moral posture but remains open knowing it is surrounded by differing reasoned behavioral assumptions.  Our focus is to avoid bad weather whenever possible.

 

Take these three positions and compare them when it comes to making choices.  If you line up with the first, the pro-moral, you make your choices based on a specific personal and spiritual morality.  If you are guided by the second, the post-choice, you place choice above morality trusting that you can do anything based strictly on your momentary intuition.  If you choose the third, pre-moral, you don’t leave the harbor unless you think it is really safe to do so.

 

What everyone has to accept is that there is no such thing as a non-moral approach.  Every human choice in mind, heart and spirit is a moral choice and has consequences.  Every human choice affects the world around you whether it is consciously observed or not.  Now ponder the following passage:

 

Luke 8:22-25

 22One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. 23As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

24The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”