"God created man in His own image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the favor." This quotation from Mark Twain is too true to be funny. We have many images of God in our minds,but underneath them all is one idol: ourself. Most of the time we don't even realize what is going on.
God gives us choices. It is easy for people to say, and we hear this often, "If God was real, and good, He wouldn't allow evil or pain. Therefore, He can't be real." On the other hand, the fact that He does allow evil and pain to exist, gives us choices. If there were no choices except "good" ones, we would be nothing more than squishy, spoiled little teddy bears. with no ability to recognize goodness, and our values wrapped up in our own wants. If we don't acknowledge God, underneath everything we think we want, it all boils down to "self"--which is finite and limited.
Another possible choice is to recognize the existence of something beyond ourselves, but see it as something we serve without anything in return. We often hear people say that "there are many roads to the top of the mountain," but it is very probable that most of them are dead ends, offering nothing except a relationship based on fear, again accomplishing nothing more than an escape for ourselves. It is even possible to recognize the true God Himself, but refuse to surrender our own selves, which again leaves us with nothing more than idolizing things that serve our own choices.
God's offer is the choice to follow Him--on His terms, not ours. It's not necessarily an easy way to live, but my experience is that we are taken care of, often in surprising ways. When I was just out of college, I was faced with a choice to maintain a relationship with a man I had known since childhood, but who had walked away from his earlier relationship with God, and wanted to have me on "hold" as well. And then I met another man, whose family was known to a missionary cousin of mine, who wanted to build a Godly life with me. I didn't know where this would lead, but it was to San Bernardino and an amazing life in God's hands.
My observation is that we really have only two choices: we follow what we see as our own self-interest, or we answer an invitation from the God who created all things and all options. He created us free to make this choice!
www.linmalki.blogspot.com 04/13/19
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