Thursday, June 11, 2015

Is anybody truly "happy" with who they have been created to be?

I have been spending some time in prayer and thought about this whole Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner thing. Initially, I reacted like most folks I know, with disgust. But as the dialogue continued in the media, a thought began to grow in my mind. I don't know if I will be able to articulate it well, but I'll give it a go.

Ever since the Garden of Eden mankind has longed to be different than how God created him to be. The temptation of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was partially that it would make us "like God." (Gen 3:5) Contentment as created beings was challenged there and has not stopped in the entire history of mankind. I don't think it is coincidental that just a few verses before the temptation and fall, we read,  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27, ESV, emphasis added). God created us the way he intended to create us. But that is not good enough for us. We think we can improve upon God's design.

As the argument goes, Bruce Jenner identifies as a woman and so he has undergone hormone and surgical procedures to change his body to align with his identification. (UGH, that is so hard to write) But let's just think this through. Identifying as something different than what you were created to be is implying that God somehow messed up. He meant to create you one way, but it didn't happen. But that's ok, because through modern technology we can "correct" what was messed up. We can out-create the Creator. Isn't this just one more example of mankind wanting to be "like God."

Blaise Pascal once stated, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus." I don't think Mr. Jenner will have his vacuum filled by gender-reassignment. When the lights fade and there is just this man looking at himself as a woman, will he be satisfied? Or will he crave more changes? Will he desire to do more in order to satisfy the vacuum in his heart?

The heart of sin is the dethroning of God. Whenever we assume to know more than God, to feel more than God, to "evolve" beyond God, we are rebelling against all that God has shown Himself to be. And that is exactly what sin is. (see Romans 1:19 and following) It may "feel" right to do so, but that doesn't make it right. The greatest challenge human beings have is in admitting that we are in rebellion against our Creator. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, it is my prayer that everyone who reads this may realize his own state of rebellion and cry out, ...I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Rom 7:23-8:2, ESV)


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