We Aren't Puppets

How did you get to where you are in life?

Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth." But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. - Deut. 8:11-20

We work hard. We sweat. We solve problems. We make decisions. It's all our doing, right?

No?

We all know someone who praises God for everything that happens in their life.

Thank God it's a beautiful day. Praise be to God for my son getting into college. It is by God's grace that I am alive.

Yes, we tend to think of them as overly religious, or religious zealots. Some may say fools.

There is food in the fridge because I went shopping. I went shopping because I have money. I have money because I work. I work because I have a job. I have a job because I applied and interviewed for it.

I, I, I. 

It is all about our individual accomplishments, isn't it?

But we don't do these things alone. 

We are not puppets, like the Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist's dummy, being controlled by the invisible hand of God. God doesn't work that way.

God is a lot more subtle, yet in some ways, much more involved than we think.

Yes, we have a free will. We make choices on our own. 

I select the college I want to apply to. I write the essays, complete the application, send the check along with my submission. I was the one who studied and took the SATs. I did the work.

But I cannot accept myself into college. I am dependent on someone else for that.

In fact, I am dependent on someone else for just about everything in life, from the farmer to the grocer, from the doctor to the undertaker.

This world that God created for us is a network of life. Nothing happens without affecting something or someone else.

The network is spiritual, connected by the Holy Spirit who breathes life into Creation.

So, who do we credit when that application winds up in the hands of someone who rejects it, but then has second thoughts and pulls it out of the pile to look at again?

When we pray for God's help, the Spirit plants seeds.

There was just something I read in that essay that made me want to go back and take another look at the application.

When we praise God, we are really also praising the ones who listened and chose to make a decision in our favor.

More to come...