Orientation

Whether personal tastes, personality traits or sexual preference, we hear much today regarding “orientation”. 

It is a word deriving from the Latin sol oriens, the rising sun, hence the direction of the rising sun, the east. Orientation literally means facing the east. Hence to become disoriented was to loose ones sense of direction, to have an incorrect estimation of east. Nowadays, disoriented is commonly used to describe someone that is confused or muddled; someone or something that has lost their bearings, their centre, their purpose, their way.

Throughout history many a traveller, convinced they were true to their course, discovered too late they were mistaken; some even paying the ultimate price for such misplaced certainty. Of course, the sun never moved (not in relation to earth). It is fixed, unchanging, reliable. Neither did the earth alter its orbit. It is not shifting absolutes that lay behind peoples misdirection, rather it is placing ones faith in the unreliable that creates the problem; something as unreliable as the choice to travel by night instead of by day; as unreliable as a mud map; as unreliable as assuming a GPS is infallible.

“Orientation is not a choice”

This also is an oft heard comment, usually from those seeking to justify a behaviour. Yet the bible also speaks of this. It says that, since the fall, we are now oriented to trusting our carnal (fallen) nature as being a reliable guide. This orientation, however, is not the result or dictate of Gods will, but rather our earliest ancestors choice to ignore that will (Romans 5:12). In that sense it is a disorientation, reflective of a race that has become lost; though often feeling sure of their direction (Proverbs 14:12).

Interestingly, though the bible confirms we are without choice in regards our inclination to trust in the unreliable, it does not excuse us when we do so. Rather it calls us to acknowledge the weakness, and overcome it through consciously (by choice) putting our trust in Gods infallible word (Galatians 5:16f).

Orientation, regardless of its popularity as justification for human behaviour, does not determine right and wrong, it simply determines natural preference. And if natural preference cannot be trusted to guide us, we need to look outside ourselves for verification.