Monday, September 17, 2012
305 - What We Are Created To Be
Spirituality
Column #305
September 18, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
Author of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
When I was 5 or so, I wanted to be an ambulance driver. It wasn’t a better or worse answer than fireman or soldier or brain surgeon or fry cook. I just wanted to be an ambulance driver.
It’s always cute to ask little kids “what they want to be.” And more than a few of us quinquagenarians have worked through a career or two and still joke about “what we want to be when we grow up.” At that level, it’s sort of a personal commentary or maybe a reflection of life choices. But whether it’s asked of a 5 year old or a 50 year old, “What do you want to be?” is a docile question driven more by cuteness or wryness than expectation of commitment to a vocation.
How much different it is to ask “What were you created to be?” Answering that question requires some semblance of mature self-awareness. Raised to the next level, let’s ask “What were you Created to be?” with a capital “C” on “Creator.” Now it’s not just about us. To answer that question one must stare straight back at God.
What did God Create us to be?
The only example in history of what God Himself Created any of us to truly be is the example of Jesus Christ. God is perfect, created mankind perfectly, and wants us to be perfect. But the one thing we all know is that we are not perfect. And why is that? Because God was wrong? God is weak? God lied? God doesn’t care?
No. God’s perfect plan for mankind – which was to create us in His image, to have us freely worship Him, and to have us share in His eternal divine love – took a big-time Fall in the Garden of Eden when Satan used man’s free will to question and mock God’s authority. Satan tricks us into thinking we were created for our own benefit. It’s the world’s oldest trick and mankind, imperfectly, keeps falling for it.
What we have in Jesus is the ultimate human role model. Jesus would not, could not, be suckered into Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:1-11). Yes, Jesus is fully and perfectly God, but He is also fully and perfectly human. Jesus’ humanity could resist Satan because He had been baptized into the Spirit and answered Satan with scripture. That’s something we can emulate; that’s the humanity we should pursue.
Satan wants us to look at the world and worship what we want to be. God wants us to look at Jesus Christ and see who we were created to be.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) never actually drove an ambulance. Maybe someday…
September 18, 2012
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville
What We Are Created To
Be
By Bob WaltersAuthor of Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
When I was 5 or so, I wanted to be an ambulance driver. It wasn’t a better or worse answer than fireman or soldier or brain surgeon or fry cook. I just wanted to be an ambulance driver.
It’s always cute to ask little kids “what they want to be.” And more than a few of us quinquagenarians have worked through a career or two and still joke about “what we want to be when we grow up.” At that level, it’s sort of a personal commentary or maybe a reflection of life choices. But whether it’s asked of a 5 year old or a 50 year old, “What do you want to be?” is a docile question driven more by cuteness or wryness than expectation of commitment to a vocation.
How much different it is to ask “What were you created to be?” Answering that question requires some semblance of mature self-awareness. Raised to the next level, let’s ask “What were you Created to be?” with a capital “C” on “Creator.” Now it’s not just about us. To answer that question one must stare straight back at God.
What did God Create us to be?
The only example in history of what God Himself Created any of us to truly be is the example of Jesus Christ. God is perfect, created mankind perfectly, and wants us to be perfect. But the one thing we all know is that we are not perfect. And why is that? Because God was wrong? God is weak? God lied? God doesn’t care?
No. God’s perfect plan for mankind – which was to create us in His image, to have us freely worship Him, and to have us share in His eternal divine love – took a big-time Fall in the Garden of Eden when Satan used man’s free will to question and mock God’s authority. Satan tricks us into thinking we were created for our own benefit. It’s the world’s oldest trick and mankind, imperfectly, keeps falling for it.
What we have in Jesus is the ultimate human role model. Jesus would not, could not, be suckered into Satan’s temptations (Matthew 4:1-11). Yes, Jesus is fully and perfectly God, but He is also fully and perfectly human. Jesus’ humanity could resist Satan because He had been baptized into the Spirit and answered Satan with scripture. That’s something we can emulate; that’s the humanity we should pursue.
Satan wants us to look at the world and worship what we want to be. God wants us to look at Jesus Christ and see who we were created to be.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) never actually drove an ambulance. Maybe someday…
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