The Moral Reflex

What is a moral reflex? It’s the immediate, raw reaction you have to wrongdoing, injustice, goodness and righteousness. Let’s start with the basics. If a clerk hands you too much change at the store, do you instantly correct the mistake, or is your first thought telling you to keep it? You might still do the right thing, but what was your first intention? That is your moral reflex.
For most of us, we would hope that our moral reflex would compel us to save a child in mortal danger, to tell the truth, to act righteously from a base level. When we see an injustice, the moral reflex should be compassion or pity. Look at your average college student, feminist, aging hippie and other assorted SJW’s and leftists; their reflexive action to what they see as injustice is outrage. What’s wrong with outrage? Nothing in particular, but it should be a peripheral result, not a reflexive mind set. By way of example, let’s say you witness a hit and run where someone knocks a child off his bicycle and speeds off. You’re the only one around. Is your first reaction to help the child or get outraged and chase the car? The first is the compassionate reaction, while the latter is outrage.  In the world of shrieking leftists, outrage is all they have; they don’t care about the victims of injustice, as they perceive it. Reflexive outrage is self-serving, petty and evil. That reflexive outrage is poison to their minds; it is like an addictive drug.
Maybe you’re reading this and realizing that your moral reflex is defective; that’s a good start. Just as fighters can train their reflexes, we can train our minds, but it does take work. The primary remedy is provided in the Bible. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17. Also, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” – Philipians 4:8. Yes, think on these things. Dwell on them, medicate, cogitate and concentrate. Romans 12:2 instructs us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
When your train your moral reflex toward righteousness, you’ll have a clearer mind and more peace in your heart.