Are you God?

I won’t deceive you and say that this blog has not been grown through my current book addiction in some ways, but if we were honest how many of our thoughts are completely original anyways!

The Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faith are unique in that they believe in one God. Monotheism. Pretty exciting stuff right? Well in our western world (though times are changing) anything but monotheism was considered foreign, strange, and maybe even foolish. It was all those “other” places in the world that had many different gods, we are Christians and follow one God, THE God.

But here’s the reality, while we may have said that we follow one God our actions speak otherwise. You see when there are many gods you end up with a god of the river and a god of wine and a god of food and a god of sex and a god of the underworld, etc. Much time, then, is spent pleasing all the gods of the pantheon or at the very least trying not to piss them off. Whereas when there is just one God, wine and food and sex and…all belong under the same roof. They don’t all submit to different lords but rather are all submissive to the one Lord of the universe. Right? Are you drooling with excitement yet? ‘Cause here’s the part that I think is exciting…

I think many people who call themselves Christians actually do not believe in one God. Here’s the thing, if there is just one God and he is God over everything then when we call ourselves followers of this one God we must believe that we are called to submit all of our life to him. While I do believe that there is much room for our sinfulness and all that crap that comes along with being human, a dissociation has grown between much of what we call ourselves and what we consider our spiritual selves. It’s for this reason that Christians justify racial hatred, grotesque materialism, apathy toward social injustices, and greed. It has become two different worlds. It’s this odd dissociation that makes it possible for someone to proudly say “Yes I am a Christian and yes I hate colored people” (though they often find more offensive terms to use). In other words it has become normal and acceptable to believe in a god that has nothing to say about how you operate outside of church walls. This is not monotheism. “God” actually becomes some sort of pluralistic view in which there is the God of the Bible and then there is the god of my own preference.

What would it look like if we began to submit ourselves more consistently, more holistically to a God that is truly supreme, lord over everything, and creator of all? I wonder if this would change our preference concerning individuality over community, spending over giving, sex over relationship, drunkeness over honesty (often I think that peoples reasons for getting drunk is that it allows them a sort of freedom that their sober self won’t allow), busyness over simplicity, preference over sacrifice…

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