Finding True North

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. (Romans 8:5 MSG)

Our own moral muscle isn't all that strong - we go around trying to rely upon it to keep us on the straight and narrow far too often, then wonder why we didn't do very well resisting temptation. The futility of using our own moral compass all the time isn't only foolish, it is dangerous. We can easily have our moral compass lose its 'true north', finding ourselves trusting in a direction that isn't very reliable at all.

The only reliable 'compass' is the Spirit of God who lives within us. We can trust his direction over and over again - it isn't ever going to veer from 'true north'. We don't need to worry that he will lead us into sin or compromise because he is always focused on righteousness. Right choices may seem hard for us at times, but wrong ones are often because we let ourselves be pulled out of alignment with 'true north'. We chose a course of our own 'interpretation' or making.

When we become reliant upon our moral worth, we find ourselves measuring our behavior against that of those around us. It is "I am not as bad as..." or "I probably could do a little better than..." We are using false measures that lead to prideful comparisons. Those 'comparisons' are always going to make us feel we are 'better than' or 'we could be better if we just were like'. Our 'true north' isn't really focused correctly as we find ourselves looking to one another for our direction in life rather than toward Christ alone.

Pride gets us in all kinds of troubling situations - all because we thought we could 'do better than' or 'have more strength to resist than' - the truth is that both are false assumptions. We have a little strength - a lot of pride - and very little willpower or ability to resist sin or compromise. We just don't admit it! Prideful comparisons always justify our movement away from 'true north'. They allow us to continue in a path that takes us further and further away from where God wants us to be.

Exercise your moral muscle as much as possible, but don't rely upon it! Rely upon the moral compass of God's Spirit and then lean in with all you've got. This is going to get each of us further than we'd ever get with our own moral muscle. While God gave us a conscience and the ability to choose, he also gave us his Spirit and his Word to help us always remain centered on 'true north'. Just sayin!