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Natural and Supernatural Laws Involved
In the world of natural science, laws are inescapable. Water freezes at a specific temperature; gravity pulls stuff to the ground.
But the worlds of culture and society live in a very different realm, where rules seem to be able to be broken… yet never without consequence. A marriage may be considered sacred, but divorces happen. A society may value honesty, yet theft persists. Yep, in social life, the freedom to choose is real … but so is the price.
The paradox of God’s law is that it binds culture through shared consequences, not simply individual causes. One person’s action can lead to another’s punishment. Read your bible. One sinful act by a nation’s leader creates a cascade of consequences. But this isn’t theory… it’s how the world actually works.
A child who’s never disciplined to say “thank you” often becomes an adult who needs the discipline of the military or even taxpayer-financed jail time to learn respect. On and on it goes. We all know these stories. We experience them each and every day.
Here’s the thing: If kids are kept “kids” and allowed to play too long before facing real life and avoiding the responsibilities of adulthood… someone else… a spouse, a co-worker… a business owner… is always forced to pay the price.
Escaping Categories Might Seem Threatening
Another problem, not perceived as a problem, is the craving for classification in modern life. We want to understand ourselves and others through personality tests, aptitude results, or generational labels. The appeal of the books on this subject and all the psychological tests now available is that they let people locate themselves or others on a “personality map.” But the problem then becomes that we often stop moving forward once we are slotted.
But real freedom, as I see it from a historical perspective, is not about fitting into a spreadsheet or staying in a psychologically prescribed box. In fact, it’s about resisting the box altogether. Think about Stonewall Jackson, who basically flunked his first year at West Point and had to repeat it. Yet his tactics on the battlefield were remarkable. He remains one of the most studied generals in the history of warfare. His instructors could never have predicted this.
Think about Alfred The Great. His dad wanted him to be a scholar and trained him to be just that. And yet, this pencil-necked cleric became a fierce warrior who defeated the Danes and integrated them into civilization. He didn’t stay in his prescribed category.
Look, to be human, made in God’s image, is to have the freedom to do what seems unpredictable to the rest of the world at times, to do what no one expects. Innovative business and industry leaders have always done just that… broken previous paradigms and created new ones. That’s why expected norms are so tricky… they depend not on what’s possible but on what’s pragmatic at the time.
Unlike a rock that always falls to the ground or a fire that keeps burning, a person can forgive, rebel, or sacrifice. And it’s just that freedom that makes societal life both fragile and essential.
Obedience Delayed Is Misery Deferred
Okay, the hard part. Children who don’t obey become adults who are forced to obey in more humiliating ways. A society that avoids discipline in childhood breeds mindless obedience in adulthood… at work, factories, and especially in statist bureaucracies. The moral weight that should be shared early in life becomes concentrated and distorted later.
Obedience is not submission. It’s the transfer of hard-won experience from one generation to the next. If this process is broken, society loses its memory. When youth is spent in uninterrupted play, when responsibilities are deferred… adulthood becomes a slow and painful correction. The truth is, the longer discipline is delayed, the more severe the form it takes later on. We all know this.
Private, Public, and Uncharted: Three Lives of the Mind
There are many modes of our being. For the sake of discussion, let’s pick three distinct realms: private, public, and uncharted. In childhood, we live privately, our minds uncommitted and shielded. As adults, we enter public roles… teachers, judges, ministers… where we enjoy but also carry the weight of responsibility and societal structure.
But in rare and sometimes defining moments, we live in uncharted territory, exposed to uncertainty and danger, without any guarantees whatsoever. These open and uncharted times are when real life happens.
The public mind is scheduled and, for the most part, reliable. The private mind is playful and unformed. But the uncharted realm, better yet, the brave and open heart, is where meaning is forged. Columbus had an open, brave heart when he sailed into the unknown. The Good Samaritan had an open and courageous heart when he stopped to help a wounded man, disregarding his iPhone, his schedule, and convenience.
The High Cost of Avoiding an Open And Productive Life
America today is caught in a culture of extended childhood. We exalt play, encourage video games, delay responsibility, and make sure our kids avoid sacrifice. But society cannot run on private, introverted minds alone. If no one is prepared to sail in uncharted waters… exposing themselves to danger, doubt, or criticism… then society eventually collapses. History tells us this is true.
Real life comes to those who didn’t choose it, but who couldn’t walk away from it. The child falling in the river, the injustice witnessed, the friend in need… these are not calendar events. They are interruptions that demand our humanity. How we respond to them defines who we are.
To live bravely is to be sculpted by experience. It is to allow ourselves to be changed by events bigger than ourselves. Most people avoid this. They prefer safety and consistency. But society only survives because some people do not conform to security and mediocrity.
The Flow Of Ideas and the Inescapable Solidarity of Society
No thought is private. No idea is isolated. What we believe, what we teach, and how we act leavens the entire world. The human mind is not a sealed compartment… it’s more like a dam that’s always releasing into larger rivers of meaning. Even our most personal experiences are shaped by shared language, tradition, and commonly held beliefs.
To understand this interdependence is to understand how connected we all are. When you break a law, others suffer its consequences. When I cheat the system, you inherit the consequences. When a college coach violates a rule, the whole team gets disqualified from play. This is cultural cohesion, not as a theory, but as a lived reality.
That’s why society depends on founders… people who aren’t afraid to live with uncertainty, people who suffer and doubt yet transform the world around them. They are not public servants or private citizens. They are catalysts of history. Washington, Alfred the Great, Luther… none of them lived “normal” lives. But we enjoy the lives we do because they dared to be exceptional.
The Categories Of Clothing
You can still learn a lot about a society by how it dresses. Categories here too. A nurse’s uniform, a graduation gown, a soldier’s uniform… all are visible signs of what we hope are inward commitments. They signal a shared agreement about who we are and what we owe each other.
But modern culture mocks formality. It separates the dress from the duty. We want to look the part without playing it. That’s why social roles feel so empty today. Commencement gowns are worn by young folks who often have only a modest understanding of the world. Nursing uniforms cover individuals who could care less about their patients. This revealing disconnect is not in the clothing. It’s in the soul.
Nature Can’t Give You Purpose
We are born creatures, made in God’s image, but we become closer to that image only through a social order. A name, a role, a tradition… attributes not given by nature. They must be inherited, accepted, and embodied. Baptism gives a child or an adult a name representing a broader category. In a sense, a name that even mom and dad can’t provide. That new name connects the individual to a much bigger and more important story. It’s a social connection. A group dynamic.
Modern naturalism rejects all this. It seeks to get us to live as if names don’t matter, as if nature alone can shape a meaningful life. But nature can’t give you a purpose. Nature can’t tell you when to speak, when to sacrifice, when to stay loyal. Only cultural cohesion… only a shared history of meaning… can do that.
Uphill or Downhill, the Choice Is Yours
Nature is gravity. It pulls us down. Life is movement against that gravity. Society is always on the brink of death… of collapse… unless people choose to push against nature and go uphill. Uphill into responsibility, into commitment, into self-sacrifice. Uphill into life.
We cannot live our entire lives privately. Kids cannot stay in a state of play forever. And we cannot treat public roles like costumes for our own personal convenience. There must come a moment when you are sculpted by life… when you let yourself be shaped by something higher.
That is what it means to be made in God’s image. That is what the Ten Commandments still demand of all of us.
And if you ignore them? If you say, “Well, there’s still time to play”? Then someone else will pay the price. Your grandkids, perhaps. But the bill will come. It always does.
