We've all seen evidences of the new pet industry here in America. You can buy Fido a whole wardrobe, a trip to the spa, a stay at a luxury pet hotel, and countless other disgusting wastes of money. We're trying to turn irrational beasts into people.
But we haven't stopped at things lower than us. We've also moved on to God. Just look around you. He's irreverently and jokingly styled "The old guy upstairs;" "biographies" are written about Christ, the descriptions of which sound more like a romance novel than an exposition of our Savior's work on earth; pastors make crude remarks with Christ as the subject. What blasphemy!
But why do we do this? One word: Pride.
Each one of us is born with an overinflated ego. Ours is an autotheistic culture - we are our own gods. You can see its effects everywhere - our government is here to please the individual, not to serve the nation as a whole; doctors encourage us to have "me time" for our psychological well-being; people are sinking into gross debt because they don't have the money to buy all the things that they in their lack of self-control couldn't afford - or need. Our mission in life is an Epicurean one - to live for pleasure. Living for ourselves and worshiping ourselves is pretty much the same thing.
When you love something, you want other things to be like it. We measure everything we come in contact with against our ideal, whatever that may be. Take this for an example: Say somebody has a favorite book. They're going to compare every other book they read with their favorite to determine whether its good or not. They have a standard. And if you're a bibliophile, you're going to want to like the books you read - so in other words, you want the books you read to be similar in some way to your favorite.
We, as fallen humans, have set ourselves as our standard. We think we're pretty cool, and therefore try to make the rest of creation like us. And we haven't left our Creator alone.
We have it all backwards. Instead of comparing everything to ourselves, we ought to be comparing ourselves to God. Suddenly, we aren't as lovely as we imagine ourselves to be. And God becomes infinitely more holy. What right have we to bring Him down to our level? Where do we find permission to speak disrespectfully about Him? to thoughtlessly disobey what He commands us to do in His Word? to claim that He doesn't exist, simply because He's a threat to the Religion of the Self? There isn't any.
Sometimes we need to think more deeply about the seemingly simple statements in Scripture - the ones we pass by while reading without a thought.
Exodus 20:2 - "I am the LORD your God, who brought you...out of the house of slavery."
God is God - the Supreme Being. He's unimagineably holy. He deserves our respect.
God is our Lord - our Master. He gave us our lives - physically and spiritualy. We ought to give them back to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel to Him.
God brought us out of the house of slavery - "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life" (Romans 6:22) God saved us from eternal death. He deserves our love and gratitude.
But we haven't stopped at things lower than us. We've also moved on to God. Just look around you. He's irreverently and jokingly styled "The old guy upstairs;" "biographies" are written about Christ, the descriptions of which sound more like a romance novel than an exposition of our Savior's work on earth; pastors make crude remarks with Christ as the subject. What blasphemy!
But why do we do this? One word: Pride.
Each one of us is born with an overinflated ego. Ours is an autotheistic culture - we are our own gods. You can see its effects everywhere - our government is here to please the individual, not to serve the nation as a whole; doctors encourage us to have "me time" for our psychological well-being; people are sinking into gross debt because they don't have the money to buy all the things that they in their lack of self-control couldn't afford - or need. Our mission in life is an Epicurean one - to live for pleasure. Living for ourselves and worshiping ourselves is pretty much the same thing.
When you love something, you want other things to be like it. We measure everything we come in contact with against our ideal, whatever that may be. Take this for an example: Say somebody has a favorite book. They're going to compare every other book they read with their favorite to determine whether its good or not. They have a standard. And if you're a bibliophile, you're going to want to like the books you read - so in other words, you want the books you read to be similar in some way to your favorite.
We, as fallen humans, have set ourselves as our standard. We think we're pretty cool, and therefore try to make the rest of creation like us. And we haven't left our Creator alone.
We have it all backwards. Instead of comparing everything to ourselves, we ought to be comparing ourselves to God. Suddenly, we aren't as lovely as we imagine ourselves to be. And God becomes infinitely more holy. What right have we to bring Him down to our level? Where do we find permission to speak disrespectfully about Him? to thoughtlessly disobey what He commands us to do in His Word? to claim that He doesn't exist, simply because He's a threat to the Religion of the Self? There isn't any.
Sometimes we need to think more deeply about the seemingly simple statements in Scripture - the ones we pass by while reading without a thought.
Exodus 20:2 - "I am the LORD your God, who brought you...out of the house of slavery."
God is God - the Supreme Being. He's unimagineably holy. He deserves our respect.
God is our Lord - our Master. He gave us our lives - physically and spiritualy. We ought to give them back to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel to Him.
God brought us out of the house of slavery - "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life" (Romans 6:22) God saved us from eternal death. He deserves our love and gratitude.
That was beautiful. VERY well written!!!! There was this thing that C.S. Lewis said and I forgot exactly how it was pharased but it basically said that society would go through three stages: God is, God is not, and nature and we are god. You see slogans like "its all about me" and "save mother earth" on t-shirts everywhere.
ReplyDeleteBut pride and selfishness is in our human nature. I find myself "looking out for number one" way more than I should. But our society doesn't see it as a sin. We sure are going through scary times these days...
But thanks for that post! It really got me thinking! -Maddie
So true Sarah! God said in Psalm 50:21 "you thought that I was one like yourself". In other words, man is so often guilty of thinking we are just like God, or are at least, SOMEWHAT on the same level as Him. But it's like you are saying in your post, we need to know that God is BIG and we are small. So many errors result from not remembering that.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, Sarah, you should write a book about those kind of things! It was so beautiful and SOOOOO true!!
ReplyDelete