Some things are relative, and some are absolutes.

Take the temperature. My dad was in the navy when he was younger, and he was once so cold he had to put on his heavy woolen coat to stand on deck... in 85 degree temperature! His submarine had just left the Black Sea, where the air temp was well over 100, and moved out on to the Mediterranean, causing the drop to occur in a matter of a few minutes. We here in New England are chilled when the temp hits 60 in the middle of the summer, but let that happen mid-winter and we are all crowing about how warm it is! This is all very relative, it depends on our state of reference.

There is a place, (for you non-scientific types it is -273 degrees Celsius), which is termed "absolute zero". Even at very cold temperatures the atoms in things move and bump into each other, but at that extreme temperature, which seems to be impossible to achieve, there is almost NO movement whatsoever. Since things can't get any colder, this is an absolute temperature.

We might kid ourselves and think that since this absolute is impossible to reach then ALL absolutes must be impossible to achieve. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus had no sin. While relative to Adolph Hitler I might seem a very, very good person, I am really still full of evil that I must strive to overcome. It is not enough to say I am somehow "good enough" I need to model myself after the absolute perfection of Christ. There is always room to improve, and I must always strive to better myself no matter if I have looked back and decided I have already come a relatively long way.

One of the many absolutes that I think the bible clearly teaches is one that I find people are the least likely to embrace: lying. Yet we must work to overcome this fatal flaw in ourselves if we expect a heavenly home some day. One way to beat this bad habit is to spend time with other Christians, in relationships more in line with what God would prefer us to have.

Randy