I asked God to give me happiness.
God said, No.
I give you blessings. Happiness is up to you.
to do this for me:
Stop whatever you are doing. Find the nearest mirror. (This is the interactive portion of today's post.) Look at the person staring back at you. HINT: It's you. Whoa, right? But in all seriousness, step out of yourself for a moment. Look beyond the zits, your large nose, squinty eyes, unruly tresses. Look past any physical "imperfections". See yourself how God sees you. See that he knit you together in your mother's womb, he handcrafted your every "imperfection", and he thinks you are a wonder. You. Are. His. Wonder. See that God looks at you and his heart melts. Your life is sacred, it is a BLESSING.
Lions and tigers and bears, O MY. The world is full of magnificent, complex, beautiful creatures. Pick up any National Geographic and see for yourself. For example;
A hummingbird's metabolism is so fast, they are literally always a few hours from starvation.
The pistol shrimp, with a single snap of its claw, can kill all surrounding fish with a sonic boom. A snap of the claw creates a bubble with pressure so high that upon bursting it reaches temperatures as hot as the surface of the sun. WOW.
LIFE IS AMAZING!
So what about us? As humans what can we do? We are created in the image and likeness of God, soooo why can't we summon storms and shoot lightning out of our eyes?! Why can't we do anything cool?!! ...
Well, can't we? Like God, we have an intellect - we can reason. We have a will, we can make choices for ourselves. We can choose to act upon our flesh or our mind, therefore separating us from the animals. We are free. Maybe even most importantly, above all of God's other creation we were made in his likeness in order to love.
Humanity, among all creatures of the earth, have the capacity to love selflessly and unconditionally. (Maybe this is why dog is man's best friend?) Humanity, because of this, is beautiful and sacred. In the midst of all of our errors and selfish desires, we are intrinsically good. Because he thinks so. God himself thinks you are sacred.
Remember this; it wasn't until God created humanity that he "looked over all that he had made, and he saw that it was very good." Genesis 1:31.
Remember this; it wasn't until God created humanity that he "looked over all that he had made, and he saw that it was very good." Genesis 1:31.
Unfortunately, even though God created everything "good," PERFECT! actually, sin entered the world through Adam. And death through sin. It's called "original sin," which is basically the lack of originally righteousness that we were first created with. That means that since Adam, all of humanity is intrinsically evil. Like wicked. Really bad. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." "In sin my mother conceived me." "None is righteous, no, not one." If Paul says that nothing good dwells within him, there's probably not a lot of good in me either.
ReplyDeleteThank God it doesn't depend on me. Because I am intrinsically bad, nasty, and horribly evil, with no fear of God. Everything I do is tainted with sin.
But through God's gift of faith, I am one with Christ. Through the marriage with His Bride, the church, me, He takes on all my filth, sin, and unrighteousness, and in return, gives me all His perfection, His righteousness. It's a "great exchange." When God looks at me, because of Christ and His work given me in faith, He sees not my filthiness, but Christ's righteousness. Thank God.
An artist looks at his creation and the deviations of the brush strokes from the perfect image in his mind and calls the creation wicked, deviant, and evil in comparison to the perfect image it was meant to be. This is not to say that there is no value or goodness in the creation, but that without alteration it is not worth keeping. When St. Paul says nothing good dwells in him, that does not mean that he is without value. Like an unpolished gem, a rusty antique, or a painting in need of re-touching; our value is imperfect or deviant. Only in submitting our will in accordance with God's by accepting the grace of faith will the good artist deem it worth perfecting his deviant art. We are not without value, not by a long-shot. Our imperfectness does not cause the mark of the creator to be removed from our beings. We are made in the image and likeness of God; Nobody has ever paid you a better compliment than that. We are valued by our creator because He still values us and wants for the kingdom because although flawed, WE HAVE VALUE. Christ did not throw His precious life to the valueless, but because He valued and loved us, He shed His precious blood so that we may enter in perfection with him.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're right. Of course we have value. Humanity is the epitome of God's incredible creation. And yes, we still have the marks of the Creator. But our value doesn't come from inside ourselves. And of course, Paul has value even though "nothing good dwelt within him." But the point is that since the fall, all of humanity is infected with sin. Humanity is intrinsically evil. If good depended on us, we would be in trouble. Good cannot happen unless Christ acts. After all, "there is only one who is good." The point is that it all goes back to Christ, not our own worth or value because of what we have done, but because He loves us. So much that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He "calls us to Himself." It is not about our response and acceptance. That turns our eyes inward to ourselves and our own righteousness. (That's a problem, because "no one on earth is righteous before you.") The focus must be on Christ, what He has done, and what He still does.
ReplyDeleteNotice that Paul doesn't seem to think that his value comes from accepting grace, or however you want to say it. It is based on Christ. Now, we probably shouldn't combine "human worth" and "justification" like this. My point with bringing up Paul was simply that humanity is intrinsically bad. However, that does correspond with justification in a sense, because if nothing good dwells within you, you had better hope that justification is not found in you and your works, but in someone else. Christ. Notice how it all gets back to Christ? Sorry to kind of ramble, but my point was simply that we really have no power to be good ourselves, to truly do good, to love unselfishly, etc. It is only after justification is received by faith (alone) that this is possible, and then because of Christ. Humanity isn't sacred because we have some special ability inside ourselves to love others, etc. When I look at myself, I see a bunch of sin. "Filthy rags," as Isaiah would say. I'm not sacred because of me, but because Christ has taken on all my sin and given me all His righteousness. This is different from "human worth" though. All humans have irreplaceable value, simply because God is the author of life. "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away." But that doesn't mean they are "good people," or they can "love unselfishly," or especially that they have worth based on their loving abilities.
Hope that makes sense. I wasn't trying to say we don't have worth, I'm just saying that we are infected with the epidemic of sin, which has separated us from the Creator. But He Himself has bridged the gap, by His own redemptive work. He has "bought us back," or "redeemed" us. Not because we loved a lot or something, but because He first loved us. "Jesus Christ came to save sinners." And, "One would scarcely die for a righteous person." Christ died because He loves bad people.
With the distinction between value and goodness I accept your response. Any other points of contention I would bring up would be nothing but nitpicking. I would only caution not to lose a sense of wonder at the world. Though we are fallen and are a mere shell of ourselves without Christ in us, the world is amazing even with all its tarnishing. A man cannot stand before a waterfall and proclaim it evil. How great then is the glory, awe, and splendor of the Kingdom of Heaven if us mere humans, creatures of the sea, and birds of the air tainted and imperfect (though I am not sure I agree with the notion that Eden fell with us) can inspire such wonder.
ReplyDeleteSmall cautions aside, I am happy to know of your knowledge of the nature of humanity and the calling to peace in Christ. Peace then my brother, Let us go to love and serve our Lord.
Thank you, I'm glad we could come to some consensus here! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, the world is still a pretty incredible thing...it is still God's amazing creation, after all, even if tainted with sin.
I love this section of Romans 8: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."
And of course, if you want to talk about the wonders of this world:
"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky abovea proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 91:1).
May He allow us to love Him and our neighbor, as He has first loved us.
Pax Domini +