It is sometimes said that no one can tell anyone else what they can and cannot do.  There’s significant self-referential irony in the statement, given that the claimant is telling the hearer what they cannot do.

Of course, the real assumption here is that claiming some choices are morally better than others is arrogant and judgmental.  In short, it’s immoral to tell others that some things are immoral.  No one has the right to deny someone else the freedom to pursue personal fulfillment, self-determination, and happiness in any way they want.  This is especially true for those seeking the opportunity to marry and have sexual relations with whomever they wish, whether male or female.

One of the problems (there are many) with this argument is that you cannot measure human flourishing with the yardstick of present and momentary feelings.  Nor can you measure it through the limited categories of individual (or even communal) human perspectives.  From a purely sociological point of view, human flourishing has to be measured by at least three things: the demonstrated character of the person, the ongoing interpersonal engagement of that person with other persons, and the ultimate well-being of all those impacted by such practices over the course of a significant period time.

In general, people with reliable and loving character are better off and more beneficent than those who consistently make poor and selfish choices.  You can always find exceptions, of course—someone who has bucked the general system by (for example) chain-smoking and drinking heavily for 60 years, but is still able to make lots of friends, hold down a job, never get lung cancer, or have a DWI conviction.  But this is an exception precisely because it is rare and unusual.

The rapidity with which our society has flung open the doors to same-sex marriage, widespread drug use, overt sexual experimentation, celebration of transgenderism, and government-funded medical and chemical sex-change procedures, even performed on adolescents and children, doesn’t just sadden me; it greatly alarms me.

Bald internalist expressions of self-generated ideas of what it means to flourish are deeply problematic because they cut themselves off from the corrective and collective wisdom shared in and with other humans (not to mentioned God Himself) long before any of us came onto the social scene.

I fear we are only just beginning to see the long-term damage and fallout of a contemporary society that has embraced individualistically (im)moral positions that will lead to lasting and long-term psychological dysfunction and societal destruction—ironically, all in the name of greater psychological health and human flourishing!

In the past, people had these same thoughts and did many of these same things, but they entertained and did them in the face of a social consensus which considered them abnormal, harmful, immoral, and anti-social.  Even these people often considered them to be self-destructive and wrong but felt like they just couldn’t stop themselves.  Now, such expressions are celebrated and promoted as the best and greatest means to human flourishing.  As a result, we live in a society that is more suicidal, unhappy, dysfunctional, and drug-addled than at any other time in its history.

But far worse and more dangerous than this, these lifestyles also drive people away from the One who made them for a better and more meaningful purpose in this life.  It also endangers any opportunity they might have to enjoy intimate fellowship with Him for all eternity.  Against the pursuit of happiness in this life, God beckons to us to surrender to and be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ, and then follow hard after the arduous but deeply rewarding pursuit of His holiness instead.

Jeremiah 6:16 puts it this way: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Similarly, Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

God has given us paths to take and yokes to shoulder so that we might genuinely flourish in this life as well as in the life that is to come.  But at the same time, the second part of Jeremiah 6:16 is tragically telling: “But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”  As a result, the nation of Israel, and all who were part of it, suffered significantly.

God’s offer for true flourishing remains, but the choice to surrender to Him and pursue it is still ours to make.  Above all the din and clamor for a more “progressive,” “open,” and “free” society, God calls to and beckons us back into the safe confines of an eternal love relationship with Him.  He offers His biblically-revealed ancient paths and ways to genuine and everlasting human flourishing, and He shows us that we were created to embody and reflect His holiness, experiencing and enjoying His sweet fellowship in the midst a world deeply distorted, marred, and broken by sin.

Do you want to truly flourish?  Take up the yoke of Jesus and walk in God’s ancient paths by the power of His Spirit and you will experience His ultimate and enduring rest in this life as well as eternal life in the one that is to come.