The Manufacturer's Suggested Use

This was on my mind last night as I went to bed, and it was still there when I woke up this morning.

When there is doubt about what I should do, or there is confusion, or there are differing opinions coming at me, the thing I find helpful to remember is that there is only one Creator of the universe.

And no matter where you are on the spectrum of believing that or not, I do not think it changes the reality. If you have rejected him and you are an atheist, that rejection happened in your intellect. If you are agnostic and figure sure, there is a creator, he is just not particularly involved, same deal. If you are a full on believer, you have not added anything either. I will say one hard thing and move on. If you have declared that you know all and that you are the center of all, then in essence you have become your own creator. I have been there. It is not usually a decision you announce. It just sort of happens.

This post is not about the atheist perspective on creation, or even the agnostic one. It is about what comes next. If there is a Creator, then the answers to how created order should work are already with him. What is the best way to use this part of life, or to enjoy it, or to participate in it? Go back to the Creator. What did he intend? What has he done? What was the design?

Much like if we bought a product. If there was confusion about how to use it, or what it was for, or how to make the most of it, we would turn to the manufacturer and the instructions. We would let the manufacturer help us, because they made it.

So for me, that looks like getting as close to the original source as possible. What if God in fact issues instructions, and how have they been carried out over the centuries? The people who formed the church, the ascetics who went off into the wilderness and spent time alone with God and then wrote about it, what did they encounter? Is there truth there?

And look, in your case you may not find it. It may not be there for you.

But I will say this. Experiencing God is not an intellectual exercise. You can only know so much of God in the mind. He is a thoughtful God and a thinking God. He created thinking, and there is clearly a lot of thinking to be had around him. But at the end of the day he is also a feeling God, and he moves and enlightens us in our senses as much as he does in our thinking.

In fact our logic can be somewhat problematic at times, because we come at things from a worldview that may not actually be God's design. It becomes a filter, and the filter is the problem.

So how does this apply to me, and to hope?

Sometimes I feel beat down. And I turn to God and say, okay, with this relationship I am struggling with, what is your design?

You created the need and desire for personal connection. You created family, community, and belonging. You gave us the emotion of love. How did you intend for this to work? And what am I doing, or not doing, that takes me off the manufacturer's suggested use?

You can say the same thing about sex. Sex is good. But who invented it, and who gets to decide its intended use and how we best experience it? What does it look like to receive it as a gift from God rather than something I define on my own terms? That is a different level of intimacy than the one we usually talk about.

Same with time. If God created time, how do we use it the way he intended, given an orderly God who designed creation in the cycles of seasons and the changing of the sun?

I could go on...

And here is my point. When I feel confused or frustrated or anxious, when I feel anything other than hopefulness, it is often because I have taken something that was created by God, for God, to the glory of God, and I have allowed my perspective, my worldview, my experiences, my own desires, my pride, to redefine it. Or to simply not follow it as intended.

So I pull back. And I find a great deal of hope in knowing that the one who created all things is in all things and works through all things. That gives me somewhere to go, and something to say:

Lord, teach me thy statutes. Teach me what it is that you would have me know about this thing, and help me to use it to your glory, for my salvation, the salvation of those around me, and the glory of thy holy name.

If there are things I have done, or am doing, in word or in deed, or perspectives I hold, in knowledge or in ignorance, anything contrary to thy divine will, make it known. Whether it is my brokenness, or things done to me, or things I have done to others, Lord, have mercy.

And give me strength in moments of weakness, because willpower does not work. I cannot change myself. I cannot will myself to a new anything. I am not the creator. You are. So create within me the peace that I need, the transformation that I need, the self-control that I need, the wisdom that I need, so that I can live in all things, including this thing, to thy glory.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.