Conscience

Originally Published in the Pembroke Observer March 24, 2009

Conscious conscience
Thomas H Czech

Are you conscious of your conscience? Do you look at those around you and pass judgement? When you do something that may be wrong, perhaps not legally but morally, do you recognize it? Is there something that nudges at you? Are you conscious of your conscience?

We live in a day and age with people who will do whatever it takes to get by, especially from one paycheque to the next. More and more people are looking out for número uno.

The lack of conscience was very prevalent in the ‘80s, the “If it feels good, do it” mentality was strong and gaining momentum, people did not care about what they did or who they hurt. This was vastly different in the decades previously where people would get together and have protests for what’s right no matter what, and bed-ins for peace like John Lennon and Yoko Ono had where common. 

In the bible the writer of the book of Acts chapter 24 verse 16 clearly says “So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” The writer made a conscious choice daily to do this.  Job in the book of Job chapter 27 verse 6 says “I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live” He also is conscious of his conscience and is making a choice to maintain his righteousness before God by making a conscious decision; he is aware of his conscience.

What has happened since then to change this?

Some people would argue that the cause of this is the music that children listen to from a very young age, movies they watch, games they play as well as violence they may be witnessing within their families or abuse they received themselves.

Studies have shown that a continuous bombardment of violence will and does have a negative effect on developing minds, numbing their conscience to what’s wrong or right. 

There have been two sides to this argument for many years and will continue to be for many more, I am sure.

I believe that people are not conscious of their conscience.  That is not to say that everyone’s conscience is seared to the point of no return. However, what will happen if people refuse to waken their conscience and listen to it?

I believe that if things do not change we could see more violent crimes. In February Vancouver had more shootings in two weeks than they ever had before. Vancouver is now called the Gang Capital of Canada.

In Toronto someone pushed two boys onto the subway track, there were also the freezing deaths of two young children in Saskatchewan because the father was drunk and took them outside, and what about the decapitation of a young man on a bus in Manitoba?

This is only a snapshot of what has happened and of how much worse things could get if people don’t become conscious of their conscience. 

How does someone get back to listening? I believe the way back is through Jesus Christ, prayer works and can waken the conscience.

            The time has come to take that step, to listen to that voice that has been trying to get your attention, let it through, take a small step forward and see where it will take you.

Every human wants good things to happen to them, however, can this happen if one does not take the first step to get the ball rolling? There are enough sayings out there to make one think, such as “What goes around comes around” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” to mention only two. 

Why not do what is right? Help someone out, don’t turn a blind eye to injustice and return the extra change the cashier mistakenly gave you; after all, when you leave this earth what kind of an impact would you have made to be remembered by? What is your legacy?  The good you do now will snowball to a greater good and impact everyone before you leave this planet.

Think about it!

©Thomas H Czech, 2010