Ok I have a question for you all that I want input on. I've been trying to decide if I should blog my thoughts and get take the chance they might influence any of your input that you are so kind to offer or if I should get your viewpoints and then write about mind. Maybe just a little bit now; basically I've been thinking alot the past year but especially this summer and especially the past several weeks about self-esteem and our worth and our worth because of a relationship with God and here is basically the statement I want input on:
"You are not worthy you are so unworthy but you are worth it to God"
Ok I can't stop so we'll continue. Now this statement has been BIG to me lately and has rung so true and I believe it. In fact I've come to the conclusion that perhaps this would be a better teaching to today's youth that the societal self-esteem and confidence that are often pushed their way that seems to throw so many expectations at them that they are trapped without any way out and no more self-confidence than when they started. However, without divulging a lot I had a client somewhat challenge this. Basically the questions that has brought up to me is basically a long the lines of 1) Are we born unworthy - now I personally think we are born perfect and make decisions to stray away. 2) Why would a loving God that wants a relationship with us give us the right to make these decisions then. Why even have a tree that we can't touch; he made us right? then why it seems purposely throw something at mankind that will be tempting, 3) Are we really not worthy? or are we just sinners? Therefore does the sin make us unworthy and then back to number 2; 4) How does this cross thing really make since anyway. I mean this loving God makes us, then allows us to be tempted, then comes and rescues us threw this cruel unhumane way that well if everything is from God is this from God? and I'm sure there are a lot more but we'll stop there before my mind blows.
Now I want to put in a disclaimer here. Before you all go worrying about me while these questions are going through my head and I'm thinking through them I haven't gone off the deep end. I think a lot of this is where faith comes in but I'd like to get your viewpoint as well. To prevent long posts you may not want the whole world to read feel free to email me at rls06k@acu.edu (that is a zero not the letter O)
I'd appreciate any thoughts.
2 comments:
Hey, Rebekah. I'm glad that you like the Hollands! I will have to think on your question here and see if I have anything to share.
Hmmmmm... you tossed out a lot of heavy questions. I'm not sure this is an answer to any of them, but it might give you a framework to consider:
I don't think of the tree in the Garden as something that we couldn't touch, but rather a necessity for God to be able to be who He is. Let me explain:
Love it a choice. It must be freely given without coercion for it to even be 'love'. Think about it... It is the primal definition of love... it has to be given to "be". So... in the beginning, God (love) was uni-directional. It flowed from God to us, but in order for love to be love, we had to be able to choose to love him back. Our demonstration of our love... our choice... was to be obedient. If God *didn't* give us the opportunity to obey him, both by giving us free will and the ability to disobey Him, we would also never have the ability to freely CHOOSE obedience to Him.
So, putting us in Eden and basically be dolls that he was playing with who had no free will to obey him or not... to love him or not... would have been pointless. Any "love" that we gave him in that circumstance wouldn't be real love. It would be a mockery of it.
That is a difficult concept to explain and to understand, but I hope I made some sense. As me in person if you want to give me another stab at explaining it.
-jeff
Post a Comment