Somewhere
along the line of my spiritual journey, I was told that God did not
provide us with The Ten Commandments out a desire to spoil all our fun.
They're guardrails, intended to keep
us safe on our individual autobahns. If you wouldn't scrape along 'em in
your Pontiac G6, why would you do so with your person?
Not too long into the New Millennium,
I came to believe that "the meaning of life" is "choice." If you think
about it, isn't that what was really going on in the Garden of Eden?
You choose.
What keeps us from making the "right"
choice? Pride (Proverbs 16:18).
Sin is making the wrong choice and
the inherent consequences that flow there from. How can there be sin if
God is good? I think it's because sin is more like an "inappropriate
use" concept. For example, is gravity "good" or "bad"? Well, it's good
if I want my soup to stay in the bowl until I eat it; but it's wrong to
expect that gravity does not apply to me if I step off the top floor of
the Empire State Building.
The Holy Bible comes into this, then,
as a way of God writing to us, as an assurance that He is there with us
as guide and helper in making our choices.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 is my
favorite passage of Scripture. Just two words, and they are poetic
comfort to me. "Pray continually," Paul writes.
Not just asking, of course. But also,
listening.
