Morality Is Easier when it's about following rules

​I was reading a blog post yesterday by Seth Godin that talked about our "moral imagination." I suddenly found myself pondering deeper than I ever had, what exactly is morality?

As a Christian, I guess I've always thought my faith guides my morality. Does that mean because I am Christian I am always moral? And moreover, I have a lot of friends who are not Christian, does that mean they aren't capable of being moral?

The simplest definition I found of morality is this:

Morality is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper and those that are improper.

That definition says it all, really, when it comes to the blurred lines of morality. It all boils down to what we personally think is a proper decision and what is an improper one. That's true both when I judge my own morality - "am I making a proper decision with proper intentions" - and when I judge your morality - "are you making a proper decision with proper intentions."

Proper and improper. How many battles do we have going on in this world because what one sees as very logically proper, another sees as completely improper. How many battles do we have going on because of our differing views on morality.

Oh, how much different the world would look if we all had a common view on proper and improper.

I started thinking about some things we all agree on as proper and improper. Not 100% mind you, but generally speaking.

What I decided was, again, generally speaking, proper becomes improper when our intentions and decisions start becoming harmful for others. Most "moral" arguments I hear are based on the "good" or "bad" this will do to other people.

I think the biggest problem with that - probably why we all have a hard time agreeing on what is good and bad for other people, we are not wired to think about others. We are wired to look out for ourselves. It takes real work and effort and really some supernatural strength to truly and wholly consider the good of others.

When Godin was talking about imagination, he was talking about the things we spend a lot of time imagining for ourselves. We imagine being healthy and prosperous and comfortable.

Maybe the measure of my own morality, my own moral imagination, is how much time do I spend imagining how to make others healthy and prosperous and comfortable. How much of my day is spent imagining my potential? How much of it is spent imagining yours?

One of my favorite bible stories is the story of the rich young ruler. He came to Jesus and told Jesus, hey, I'm following all the laws. I'm doing everything a good moral man should do. Tell me what else I can do to be more moral. Jesus told him to go give away all his stuff to the poor and come follow him so they could love on others even more.

The man walked away dejected. I think maybe because he came to Jesus believing he was moral, but then Jesus changed the rules of morality on him. At least as the rich young ruler saw it.

Jesus wanted the guy to see moral isn't following guidelines, moral is a way of thinking.

Jesus was asking him, basically, are you spending more time thinking about what's good for you, or about what's good for others.

I think we've come to define morality by political party or by religion or by skin color or by the college we did or didn't go to or the neighborhood we live in. I think we do that because it makes morality black and white. It makes it personally easier for us to answer a very difficult moral question - what is proper and what is improper?

I think we do it because it is easier some days to follow spoken or unspoken rules as a way of determining proper than it is to ask ourselves how proper our hearts are.

For me, I can't help but wonder what the world would look like today if everyone spent their day imagining how to make life better for the people around them. I'm not going to spend any time today trying to figure out how to make my life better - I'm going to spend my whole day wondering how to better yours.

Radical? I suppose. But I'm not considering what is hard or not hard. I'm wondering how much better the world would be if we all did that. I'm wondering if whether Christian or not, Democrat or not, I'm wondering if we had a common morality centered on imagining the possibilities for others instead of self, I'm just wondering if the world would be a better place.

I think the rich young ruler walked away knowing the world would be better if he gave away all his stuff and spent his life hanging out with Jesus serving others. I think he walked away dejected because he knew he couldn't so it. He walked away dejected because his morality was easier when it was simply about following rules.