Benchmark of Life

Recently, I needed to determine the approximate elevation of a hill on our little homestead. My son and I used a process called differential leveling that I learned in an agricultural technology class. The point of the beginning was an established point set at 100 feet of elevation. It is called a benchmark—the initial point of reference. The final reading at the top of the hill was 138 feet, so the hill was 38 feet tall (138 minus 100=38).

I’m sure most of you care nothing about differential leveling, but I wanted you to know where I came about with this concept of a benchmark.

A benchmark is a reference point established as a constant and everything is referenced back and evaluated from that point. In life we need a benchmark to reference all the information that comes to us. If you do not have a reference point, everything else is just a garbled mess.

In the culture of the world, the secular mindset says there is no absolute truth–that there are no benchmarks. (It is funny, that they absolutely state that there are no absolute truths.)

If there is no absolute truth, then every known concept is a falsehood and there is no reliable reference point to anything. It is by this viewpoint of fluctuating ‘facts’ that people are redefining words and concepts that have stood for over 5,000 years of recorded history with little challenge during those five millennia.

If there is no absolute truth, then who is to say that anything is good or evil. How would a community determine if murder or rape was evil if there were no absolute truth?

Those of us who have any common sense know there are some things that are universally agreed upon as evil such as murder, lies, theft, etc. Why do we know that these things are universally wrong?

The reason we know this regardless of our language, country, or even religion is that we were created as moral creatures. From the Garden of Eden at the point of the Fall of Creation, mankind entered into a knowledge of good and evil. It is inherent in our being.

Unless we are in a state of mental illness or habitual wickedness, we know right from wrong. It is one of the greatest pieces of evidence of the reality of God because man has been imprinted with the morality of God. If it were not so, we would have no moral compass at all. If we only emerged from a primordial muddy soup then our conduct would be the same as a hyena.

I read my Bible every morning. I do not get an earth-shaking revelation every morning. Some days it is quite mundane. Some days it is: “Wow, I’ve never seen that before!!!” Some days it is: “Lord, forgive me for my life is not on point with Your benchmark.” Other days it is: “What a wonderous God we serve!”

The Word of God is my benchmark by which I reference my beliefs and actions. In order to find my elevation, I look back to the benchmark.

To those who may read this and say, “I don’t believe the Bible.” My question to you is, “What is your benchmark based on?” Is it the media, your own wavering mind, some book a fallible man wrote, a fuzzy-headed scholar with a theory, a witch with a spell, a whimsy feeling that is high today and rock bottom tomorrow, or…

There is an absolute truth in God and His Word. His Word does not contain the truth, IT IS TRUTH! If you find a better benchmark—let me know!

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt