I wrote this to a friend yesterday. I was praying that God would give me the words I needed...and when I was done writing I was amazed at the work He had done.
Hola,
So, I need to go out and get some exercise, but I wanted to drop you a quick note just to explain about being a puppet.
The easiest way for me to say it is that being a Christian isn't about having to do what you're told, and being restricted from what you want to do. In short, it isn't about having the person you are stifled and frustrated. God doesn't want to dominate you.
Being a Christian is about God knowing you. And, before I go any further, we have to remember that God isn't human. He's...okay, you ready for the dictionary...I will be EXTREMELY impressed if you know these words...be honest and tell me if you knew them...
God is:
1. Omniscient
2. Omnipresent
3. Omnipotent
So, that means that God is everywhere, knows everything and can do anything. Which means that if you say I am not going to believe in God because I can't understand how he can be real without seeing him...but you are not omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent...well...you have a chink in your logic...
But the truth of the matter is that you CAN see God, or at least the evidence of Him. Besides the fact that Jesus is a historical figure and nobody really argues whether he was a real person, there are other pieces of evidence.
My favorite piece of evidence is up in the sky. When I am somewhere out camping deep in the woods with no city around and I look up and can see ALL the stars...it gives me butterflies. No kidding. There are SO MANY. And I am sorry, for me to believe that some big bang put them all there or some other ACCIDENT...to me it takes a lot more faith to believe that it all happened by chance than to believe God created it.
There is other evidence too. One of my favorites is what goes on inside your brain. I can remember being in college and learning about how everything in there works...and I was...I was just baffled. There are so many things, when I stop and look and consider how complex they are...the oceans, the atmosphere, trees, birth, space, the sun, sunrises and sunsets, gravity, the way grass grows and birds fly.... all the little things about nature that are so amazing like dolphins and spider webs...and cats purring (yes, your mom told me and I have 4 cats and I love when they purr)....
Sorry, I'm getting passionate, but come on. If a couple of those things were here...okay, maybe I would doubt God a little...but there is ALL of that and so much more...and I'm supposed to believe that it's ALL AN ACCIDENT!! lol. *****...which one takes more faith...to believe God did it or to believe that it was all an accident?
So, in case you can't tell, when I get writing, I sometimes can't stop. To say the least.
But back to my original thought about puppets.
I said that being a Christian is about God knowing you. Because He is all the "omni's", He knows anything and can do anything, and is everywhere all the time. He sees everything. And, when I say he owns us, again I don't mean it in a bad way.
Like, when I write a song on my guitar and it's beautiful, (I'm not bragging) I love that song. I really love it, and even though I wrote that song, even though I "own" it, I don't try to make that song do anything else than what it was intended to do. Each song has a purpose. Like, some songs I write are serious and dark...well, I don't play those ones for someone when I'm trying to let them feel how much I love them...you know?
Well, people are a lot more special than songs. Did you hear the story about the guy in NYC last year that was in the subway last year with his two daughters when another man near him had a seizure and fell off of the subway platform and right on the tracks in front of a train that was coming? The father gave his daughters to another person and jumped right out on top of the man and held him down while the train went right over them. He saved the mans life.
He didn't know that man, he was just on his way to work. And he wasn't a cop, or an athlete or anything "important", he was a janitor. Well, to me, when I heard that story, I really felt special just hearing about it, because that was beautiful, that janitor was a hero. He didn't have to do what he did. He could have stood there and let the man die, and nobody would have blamed him. But he didn't. He decided that He was going to do something to try and save the man.
Anyway, my point is that everybody...well, almost everybody...has the ability to be good. And everybody has the ability to be good in their own special way because we are all unique. The problem is, that people get out in the world and they start thinking about themselves and become selfish and don't care who they hurt because they're "just trying to make themselves happy."
And that leads to sin. Really, that is sin.
Let me ask you this. How do you think that janitor felt about himself after he saved that man? Do you think he was a jerk about it and real proud and talked about how cool he was? Well, I actually got to see him interviewed a couple times and he wasn't anything like that. He was just really happy. He just felt really good. It was a selfless and noble act. It went exactly the opposite of the way everyone usually lives, which is why everyone was talking about it on the news and he was being interviewed all over the place. It was unusual. I believe that it was evidence for the part of us that is like God, from God, that's made in His image.
I'm going to get to my point. I promise.
Have you ever been to a concert? I've been to some really good ones, and what makes them really good is that all of the songs that the band plays are great, and they all...like build up until the end and the place is just off the hook and everybody is screaming and yelling and dancing and having the time of their life.
Well, every song that the band plays during that concert had a place. If the band came out and played just the first three songs, it wouldn't be any good. If they came out and only played every other song it wouldn't be as good, because we would be mad that they didn't play some good songs that they really liked. My point is that every song in that concert has a place where it is supposed to go, and a purpose it is supposed to fulfill. And when the song gets played right when it's supposed to be played, we say, "That was awesome!"
And people are just like that. We are all unique and we all have things about us that make us special and better at some things than others. Like I can sing but I can't draw. I can barely color inside the lines. And we know some of the things we're good at, but sometimes we're surprised when we do something well that we didn't know we could do well.
Well, because God created us, He knows everything about us, and He knows all the things we're good at and just where we fit in the "concert". And when we allow ourselves to be played like that, when we read the Bible and try to live the way it tells us to live instead of living like the world lives and trying to "make ourselves happy", people that know us and see the things we do say "That was awesome."
And just like that janitor felt after he did the right thing, doing that makes us happy. So, God owning us...it means that all the things about us that we like about ourselves, all the things we do well, He wants to make it so we can do them. He knows where we "fit" and what will allow us to do what we do best...and what will make us happiest...and he wants to use us to help other people feel that way to.
But we don't have to do it. Being used by God is a choice, so it's actually the exact opposite of being a puppet. Like I decided to sit down here and write this to you instead of watching the Red Sox or playing video games online with my friends. And I did it because God uses me by letting me do the things I do best, and I am happy, and I don't feel empty and messed up anymore because of it. I feel good because rather than spending all of my time worrying about me and "what's best for me", I take time to try and help other people like you. Which makes me happy, especially when they see how much God loves them and I get to be a part of them getting to be happy too.
Alright...sorry I wrote so much. I know I even might have been a little complex, but I get the feeling about you that none of this is going to be above your head.
Phew!
R-
