Anchored to Right Living

“So that we are no longer children [spiritually immature], tossed back and forth [like ships on a stormy sea] and carried about by every wind of [shifting] doctrine, by the cunning and trickery of [unscrupulous] men, by the deceitful scheming of people ready to do anything [for personal profit]” (Ephesians 4:14, AMP).

What is right living anyway? It’s my way of interpreting a concept in God’s Word called “righteousness”; living a life that is pleasing to God.

Wikipedia says: “Anchoring or focalism is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely…heavily on the first piece of information offered (the “anchor”) when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments. Once an anchor is set, other judgments are made by adjusting away from that anchor, and there is a bias toward interpreting other information around the anchor. For example, the initial price offered for a used car sets the standard for the rest of the negotiations, so that prices lower than the initial price seem more reasonable even if they are still higher than what the car is really worth.”

I probably used such a concept when bartering in the souvenir markets in West Africa. I would walk into the market, see something I like, and would gently barter over the price. I would then tell the vendor, “I am going to check the rest of the market and may be back.” The price I established with the first vendor was the price I tried to beat with other vendors in the market. An anchor point had been established and I refused to move away from it. Well, of course, unless the new vendor was willing to give me the best deal for the same product.

Here’s my point. Anchoring establishes anchor points in our lives. They hold us strong and safe. Our decisions in the Christian life should be based on our established biblically-based anchor points.