And A Side Of Glory, Please

"God create us for his glory."

I've often heard the good people of the church say this and I think it's a bit misleading - actually quite misleading. I think it distorts our image of the character of God.

Breaking News!

God, CEO of the universe, created a new product today. The decision was made after taking stock of himself and discovering a somewhat lackluster appearance in recent reportings. Congruently, the repetitive nature of the so called "7-11" songs done by the angels, particularly in light of the considerable length of eternity, prompted the CEO to search for new ways to feel better about himself.

For that reason, the product, referred to as "Humanity" was created. The purpose of Humanity will be to continually make God feel better about himself. However, there are already rumors about suggesting that Humanity may not live up to the expectations surrounding it.

Should this be the case, stockholders will want to know just how far God will go to work out the bugs. More specifically, will stockholders be left holding the bill, or does God intend to pay for the potential upgrades from his own substantial wealth?

The release of Humanity is set for next week Monday.

The glory of God is not the purpose of humanity.

It's not.

God isn't some selfish, whiny baby in the sky saying "Entertain me! Make me feel better about myself! Tell me how great I am."

God doesn't have self esteem problems.

When we live in communion with God, we are transformed towards a more whole, substantive, complete being. The nature of our more complete being reveals the glory of (a) creation, that glorious work of God's hands and (b) God, particularly his grace, in that God is the author of our healing (salvation).

However, this does not by any stretch of the imagination suggest that our purpose is to glorify God. Our purpose is to commune with God, from which overflows various "side effects" such as the afore mentioned glorification, starkly seen in this present brokenness.

Now, you may think I'm counting angels as they dance, but if we are to speak of God (which I attempt with my mustard seed of humility) we must speak as truthfully as we can - for ourselves, yes. But also for the well being of those to whom we speak. Our accidental laziness of thought and of language may distort another's view of God.

(I'm not suggesting that God cannot correct the distortion, but we all know too well the years it can take learning to rethink a misguided notion.)

And now I will leave you with this quote:

"Creation is the laughter of the Trinity."

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 7/17/2005 10:30:00 PM