Things just don't go right.

Life is just lousy, nothing we do ever seems to work out right and even when we get things going pretty well, wham... it all falls apart again. We think if only we could get things right, maybe... finally... get things together we'll be what we should be. Success just depends on hitting the right notes in that song of life, and our tune is just off-key and we know it. Sometimes it seems like the Devil is playing with us. Or worse.. maybe God has just plain forgotten us.

We keep up the facade sometimes... put on the mask, just like going to a Halloween party where everyone dresses up pretending they are something they are not. At the party it is fun, but when the evening is over it is just memories of what once was. It is even a bit weird to keep wearing those costumes and it becomes obvious to others who see it. The deceptions, the denials, the fakeness and superficiality are all little escapes from reality that sooner or later come to an end. And why all the posing and pretense? Because we want to look good.

So what is it that makes us feel so down? When we pull off that mask and look in the mirror what is seen is a person with some flaws.. or a lot of flaws. Everyone wants to think they are perfect, or nearly so, and a little deception makes us think we aren't so bad. Some people are very good at lying to themselves, they just never look in that mirror of truth. Ever have a very stinky mangy dog walk up to you? It just wants to play and get attention and you just want to get away from it. People who ignore the truth about themselves are like that... and we are all like that dog. Deny it if we want to but we know it's true.

Somewhere deep down in us something just tugs at us. That little thing about knowing right from wrong. You want to do the things that are right but you do the things that are wrong. It's like these "rules of the universe" we seem to think exist, whether we believe there is a God or just a god... or maybe just some force out there... well... okay... and even if we don't believe there is any superior being out there at all the universe does seem to have all these rules and laws of physics and other technical things that sound rather... uhmmm... orderly.

Hey, you drop an egg on the ground and the thing breaks because of some stupid Law of Gravity. Cause and effect. If the egg wasn't dropped it wouldn't break... at least if it wasn't a fertilised egg... some little chick will crack it open to get out... but that's not Gravity at least.

From the Heidelberg Catechism's Lord's Day 2 we have 3 questions;

Question 3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?

Answer. Out of the law of God.

Question 4. What doth the law of God require of us?

Answer. Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Question 5. Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?

Answer. In no wise; for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbor.

Where do we know right from wrong? From rules and laws. Whether it is written down or written in our hearts we know morality exists. Sometimes we like to define our morality ourselves, the old what is right for one is wrong for another idea, better known as moral relativism. Somehow we know about that orderliness in the universe.

In any wise, this whole "knowing right from wrong" stuff does get a person down a bit when they realise they just aren't up to those standards. Sometimes it even wrecks our lives or causes all sorts of terrible things in our lives. And sometimes it isn't our own "errors" that bring that about but someone else's rule breaking. The 10 Commandments in the Bible are often referred to as the "Law"...

Exodus 20:2-17

(1) "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me.
(2) "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
(3) "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
(4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
(5) "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
(6) "You shall not murder.
(7) "You shall not commit adultery.
(8) "You shall not steal.
(9) "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
(10) "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

This is how Christ summed them as we read in Mat 22:37-40 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Easy enough to see that if those rules get broken it can lead to some misery for someone, if not everyone, and just looking over that list can any of us say we have kept those rules and not broken any of them? We might have hurt ourselves or hurt someone else... and we aren't even talking about any god yet! If we hate people enough to be mean to them we must hate God too. Our despicable little human nature is just a bit warped, we hurt friends of friends... uhmm... might as well be hurting your own friend right? Okay, some are so warped they hurt their own friends... but isn't that telling us something? Hey, we go against that "orderliness in the universe"!

The Heidelberg questions and answers come from public domain documents.