Isaiah 55:8-9
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The fundamental problem people have with the notion of God is that of authority and control. We want to be our own boss; we want to live our lives as we please. Freedom, we think, is ultimately to do whatever we wish to do when and how we wish to do it. Autonomy is freedom - the more, the better. God, of course, gets in the way of such autonomy, such "freedom." The God of Christianity, in particular, the God revealed in the Bible, steps right up to us and says, "My way or the highway."
Matthew 7:13-14
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
God says to us, "There are only two options in front of you: The Narrow Way or the Broad Way. Whatever you might tell yourself, whatever story of reality you might adopt, you travel one or the other way." This sort of thing gets up our noses. Being radically and fundamentally self-centered, pathologically devoted to having our own way as much as possible, we bristle at God's ultimatum.
Some go on simply to deny any such God exists, a God who is directly interested in how and why they live. If there is any God at all, He/She/It has left them to sort things out themselves, to live just as they like. Such a God may be dismissed completely, of course, having no pertinency to the practical aspects of daily living.
Others go a bit further and assert that there is only the material reality in which we exist, that there is no supernatural dimension whatever. God is an illusion, a crutch for the weak-minded, a dangerous fantasy, in fact, responsible for much human suffering.
Still others resort to shaping God in their own image, taking to themselves the "god" they see in the mirror every morning. They can't bring themselves to adopt the radical and ultimately nonsensical idea that there is no God at all, but they don't want a bossy God, a God who constrains them sharply, who might even condemn them and require them to change in some drastic, uncomfortable way.
What they want is a "nice" god: One who is always perfectly aligned with their deepest desires and goals. Not a god, obviously, who accommodates everything; they don't want a god who would condone the things to which they strongly object; just a god who celebrates whatever they really want to do. It's the strength with which they desire and embrace a thing, that determines if god approves of it or not. In fact, this sort of a god, a god who accepts everything the individual thinks is important, that s/he powerfully prefers, that makes sense to them, is what many folks mean by a "loving god."
Such a god, though, is nothing more, at bottom, than a reflection of the individual; a god made in the individual's image. God, really, is the individual; to worship and serve such a god is, ultimately, to worship and serve oneself.
The God outside of us, the God revealed to us in the Bible, tells us we are all deeply and destructively wicked at heart, however:
Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?
Matthew 15:19
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
Romans 3:10-18
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Titus 3:3
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Goodness! What a picture Scripture paints of us! Yikes! This isn't us; we don't carry on like these verses describe. Mostly, we have the best of motives for what we do, mostly our reasons for our lying, cheating, hating, temper, and selfishness are warranted. Anyway, the god-in-the-mirror approves of us; s/he loves us no matter what we do. The condemnation of the verses above isn't from the true god, the god who is us.
God's reality has an unpleasant, irritating way of knocking up against us, though, and bruising and breaking our "divine reflection" of ourselves. For example, the cumulative body count of societies that have shrugged God off completely - Stalinist Russia, Mao's communist regime in China, Cambodia, North Korea, etc. - is estimated to be around 100 million (and climbing). When humans stand at the apex of things rather than the One True God, when humans worship the god in the mirror rather than the Ground of All Reality who is God, the result, again and again, has been suffering and death.
Those who serve the god in the mirror simply don't care. Again, today, many of them are clamoring for godless communism, for a secular, human-ordered Mother-State to rule over them, rather than God Almighty. They frame their desire for State rule in terms of fairness and equality, trusting to the innate goodness in their fellow god-humans to attain an ever-elusive communist utopia. The incorrigible reality of human wickedness, though, will not be denied. God is right: The human heart is destructively selfish and this fact will always, eventually out. And so, human history presents to us a vast heap of horrific examples. But, people would rather endure the inevitable horrors and destruction of playing god than submit themselves to the One who made them and in whom all truth and reality exists.
The worship of Self and the denial of God and reality that such worship necessitates, doesn't remain political and economic, of course, but distorts and corrupts basic facts of human biology. If a man identifies as a woman, he is one. Never mind that he cannot menstruate, that his genetics are male, that he cannot become pregnant and give birth, that he will never endure menopause, that his skeletal structure and musculature differs distinctly from that of a female, if he sees himself as female, then he is one. But when such a man gets into the ring, say, with an actual female to fight with her, reality rudely imposes itself in the terrible bashing he gives her, starkly exposing the truth that men and women are different, no matter what stories Self-worshipers might insist on telling themselves in contradiction to this fact.
Myriad, really, are the consequences of forsaking God for Self: Addiction, fear, despair, isolation, apathy, cruelty - the list goes on and on. Many muddle on, content to suffer the pain and delusion of self-worship, enduring in illusory meaning rather than yielding to God's will and way, satisfying their need, their profound, innate hunger, for connection with God by taking up pursuit of noble but far lesser things, fighting for the weak and abused, for animals or trees, for the sick and ignorant. Many ignore the ultimate futility of their God-denying lives by taking pride and consolation in these "righteous" things, telling themselves they are "making a difference." But God replies:
Matthew 16:26
26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Romans 10:3
3 For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
Isaiah 64:6
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
When we follow our own god-reflection, the problems don't end at political horrors or ugly contortions of basic facts of human biology, or the corruption and futility of sin but, God says, doing so will keep us from the beauty, truth, joy, fulfillment and deep meaning found only in Him.
Psalm 16:11
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
John 10:9-10
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
God's not ordering us about for His sake. He's perfect; He needs nothing from us. If we all disappeared in the next moment, God would be utterly undiminished. He doesn't need us to obey Him. No, God's commands to us, His insistence on being God in our lives, is for our benefit, not His. He says, "Do this," and "Don't do that," in order to protect and bless us, to move us into the life for which He made us. In such a life, that extends beyond the borders of our physical existence into eternity, there is peace, rest, fullness of joy, and holy, divine love found nowhere else.
Are you serving the god in the mirror? Are you worshiping yourself, accruing to yourself the delusion, corruption and death inherent in doing so? I hope and pray not.
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