Creating The Creator
It used to be that beauty was in the eye of the beholder, I guess now everything is.
The recent Notre Dame debacle has caste the harsh spotlight of reality on our omnipotent sense of pre-eminence. There are no more lines drawn between good and evil. There is only self-justification driven by a complete loss of responsibility. The black and white of right and wrong has been blended into a dull, murky gray and life and death have been distorted by a self-serving mentality of sanctimonious political correctness.
We live in a sin free world, because sin is no longer recognized. Even the use of the word is avoided as if saying it was the sin itself. If it feels good it must be alright. The bible teaches that God’s ways are not our ways, so to align our ways with His without actually having to change our ways we simply change our god.
We create our own personal god like a golden calf (or even a golden dome). We know what our god expects of us because he is in our own image and likeness. We use this god to bring praise and glory to ourselves rather than the other way around. Our every thought and decision is sanctified by our own free will and a god that empowers us to teach rather than learn, direct rather than listen and act with impunity without fear of retribution.
Our god is all knowing and he knows that we know best. It’s like a computer god whose knowledge may be greater than our own but in reality is only the cumulative data of our experiences. There is no threat of punishment because our god is love, and love doesn’t judge, except those we deem guilty and so we seek his guaranteed corroboration. It is a god who is eager to please us because he is our employee. Like a cosmic waiter waiting for our orders. We assign him a list of projects we want him to take care of and give him the time frame within which to accomplish them. We usually don’t think of him until the need is immediate so the time frame is typically short. If he performs his tasks to our satisfaction, like any real boss, we take the credit. If he fails we simply fire him until his services are needed again.
It is a god of barter and negotiation, “Just get me out of this and I’ll never do it again” and of complete forgiveness. Even Christians, who understand that Easter is not about a bunny, can wield their salvation like a perpetual get out of jail free card rather than a gift of grace. “I may not always be right but I am always forgiven, so why worry.” It is a god who may still be “our father who art in heaven” but the father has become as dysfunctional as the rest of the family.
It is a god whose ten commandments have been whittled down to just one. “Well, as long as I don’t kill anybody”. But even that one has been modernized to exempt the murder of infidels and unwanted children.
It is a god of endless theory and the unlimited possibility of change, morphing with the fickle nature of public opinion so as not to offend anyone. It’s a modern day god who mirrors our revulsion for the restrictions of definition, unless of course the definition is also of our own creation. It’s a god of self-centered fairness and completely devoid of challenges. It is a god of success and prosperity because difficulty and failure are no longer useful teachers.
We create this god to be as comfortable as an old shoe. We use him for the traditions that make us feel warm and fuzzy without considering their significance. Like an old shoe we wear him occasionally but we don’t feel any pride in him. We use him when we want to be comfortable but when we want to flaunt our stature we leave him in the closet for something a little more politically acceptable.
It is a god of spirituality that has no spirit, who is omnipresent but has no presence, who is just but has no judgment. It is a god of the me generation. We pray to this god, we light candles and give cash all so that, like an old friend we haven’t talked to in awhile, we can call on him when times get tough. And then we wonder why this god of our creation seems feckless over our plight or doesn’t us answer at all. There’s no answer because we’re really just talking to ourselves.
God still answers. We just stopped listening. It’s not a matter of proclaiming faith. Even the devil knows there is a God. What is important is where we place our faith and how it dictates our actions. That’s in both good times and bad.
He never promised it would be easy. He only promised it would be worth it.
