So I have been reading The Purpose Driven Life. I am only on day 7 and I have some questions (who ME? questions...hahhaaa). Anywho, I am enjoying it!
Ok:
Day 1: It's not about me. I get this, truly, I do and yes, it does make my life more...well more! No problems here.
Day 2: I am not an accident. Nope, I'm not. No problems here, either.
Day 3: Living on purpose is the path to peace. Like this one, let's me know I am not wandering around for no reason. Good here, too.
Day 4: There is more to life than just here and now. Ok, so I get this idea. But let's face it, it's hard to grasp the idea of forever. What will I do in heaven? What will it be like to not have an expiration date on me? Just hard to imagine this one, ya know. I like it, I do...just hard to .....hmmm, grasp the reality of it.
Day 5: Life is a test and trust. I see this one clearly. My question here would be "Why did he make us if he has to test us?". If he already knows what is going to happen, then what's up with that? Is he hoping some of us will surprise him? We talked about this one in small group and Tom said something along the lines of "Why did he put temptations here if he already knows what we are going to do?" Makes you think, was God like "I'm gonna make man and constantly test him"....why?
Day 6:Life is a temporary assignment. Again, hard to grasp this one since I've never "seen" or "been to" heaven. I hope God understands there are things we have to do as humans on this planet in this day and age. Have to work, pay bills, jump through hoops our society makes us jump through. Are we suppose to drop everything to follow him? I know the Bible says something along the lines of 'yes, that is what you are suppose to do". But how...we have to work, etc. I assume that we have to do it all with God in our hearts- which is no problem, really. I'm good with that idea. I guess what I can do is always keep in mind that my behavior and actions are for him. I can spread his word by my actions (since I can't "preach" about them in the public school system). Any other ideas?
Day 7: It's all for him. Ok, let's get something straight here. I DO GET THIS!!! Totally. Nonetheless, I do have questions with how it is said. The book and the Bible and other christian books talk about praising him. And I do and I do it more often since I think about God more often. But I guess I am either reading it wrong in context or something. Here are the statements I see as well, narcissistic:
1. "God made it all for his glory": Why would someone make mankind to bring him/her glory? Doesn't that sound like "I made you NOW praise me for it".....help me out here people!!! It just sounds...well, I don't like the way it sounds.
2. God said "They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory". Again, with the praise me because I made you. Look, I do praise him and I am thankful to him for my life...but it just sounds like he his whole purpose for us was to praise him...he made us so someone would worship him? It just sounds pompous?
3. "God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving, and delight, not duty". BUT we are punished if we don't praise him, so isn't that kinda two sided here? He wants us to praise him on our own free will, but if we don't, we are punished?
So, I need some ideas here people. hopefully something that will make me understand these statements better, so that I don't have these feelings of thinking God can be narcissistic. HELP!!!!
2 comments:
Oh my goodness, I am so with you on ALL of your questions. I sometimes feel like the biggest hypocrite because I go to church, I love going to church, but I doubt and question all the time. I so want to be that person that believes with all of their heart. So, I hope someone can answer your questions because I think there are a lot of people out there with the same ones! Love ya!!!
Good questions. So, what is narcissism? Two medical dictionaries define it as:
narcissism - dominant interest in one's self; the state in which the ego is invested in oneself rather than in another person; self-love.narcissis´tic
Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers. © 2007 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved
narcissism (när´ssizm),
n a personality disorder in which a person is so self-absorbed that the needs and feelings of others do not matter.
Mosby's Dental Dictionary, 2nd edition. © 2008 Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved
I would argue that these do not describe God. He is not self-absorbed, in fact he cares very much about each and every human he has created. God's very nature is to love us unconditionally, even when we do not love or honor him. He sent Jesus, his only son to save us from sin so that we could be reconciled to him, not separated from him. I would say this was an unselfish act on his part, since he could have just tossed us out. Instead, he is working to make the relationship between Him and us better. A narcissis would not try to make it better by sacrificing themselves for our good. So, I would argue that God probably judges how well his creation is doing by how well we are responding to his leading, and not to what he has created.
In statement #3 you say "...we are punished if we don't praise him." I can think of many people who do not praise God, yet are living w/o punishment. God has not struck them dead, or blind or ill. In fact by society's standards they are doing GREAT. They just are not doing so well by God's standards.
What God wants is for us to love him for who he is, the Creator, the one true God who is the truth and the way to eternal life. The God who made this world for us, and when we screwed up and broke his rule did not kill us, yes he punished us for our disobedience, but he loved us and gave us a way to still be in relationship with him in spite of our sin. This is not pompous, because pompous implies that God has elevated himself above his place. There is no place above God, he made everything so he is in the ultimate high position, and as such he is deserving of all our praise for who he is.
Why does he test us? The same reason a teacher gives the students a test. So they can determine how well they understand the material. It is not for punishment, or for some perverted enjoyment. It is for enlightenment, so they have some way to determine what to work on and improve. This is why we have trials and troubles in our life, so we can assess our walk with God and grow closer to God. The good part of trials and troubles are that God always promises to be with us in them, we are not alone, unlike our earthly teachers, we can ask him for help during our test and he will jump in with us. It is also a test for those around the person having the trial or trouble to judge themselves on how well they respond in a selfless Godlike way and help out their fellow man/woman.
Also, we do not live a predetermined life. If we did then free will would not be true. God knows how this world will end up, because he knows where it is headed but the exact steps are in our hands by the choices we make. He lets us help write the story as we go, making our choices-and our choices either bring praise to him or sadden him.
Finally, if you have The Message bible translation, make sure you read the Introduction on pages 9-11. It gives some good insights.
I hope my thoughts are helpful, I am praying for God to share his wisdom with you. Keep asking the tough questions-it helps us all to grow to know God better.
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