Mine

Having a Creator is inconvenient and problematic. Someone superior to me exists and this someone, based on the rights granted all originators, has claim to benefit from my existence. The clear indication is that there is someone to whom I must answer. With an authority I am answerable to, I have responsibility.

When you see a toddler grab a toy and wrestle it away from a playmate, you swat his seat and say, “Share!” He cries. He does not wish to share at all. So he attempts to exert his will again and does so as soon as he has opportunity. What he is communicating is his authority to command what he wishes and the responsibility of others to provide him with whatever he wants.

As adults we try the same thing. We want to be in charge of our own lives and we want others - God Himself included in the pantheon of those who stand about to do our bidding - we want others accountable for our happiness.
We have reversed the natural order. Do you see any essential difference between this behavior in adults and that of a possessive, thieving, egocentric two-year-old?

In the real world, not in the recesses of our shaded hearts, God is the authority and we are designed to please Him. As difficult as this arrangement is to accept for each of us who prefer independence and some expression of control, it is still the one the Creator’s existence dictates.

As long as God exists, you and I must choose. We will select the divine order as our paradigm, or we will opt for the arrangement that clashes with it at every turn. Said differently, the Creator has authority and the creation responsibility, or the creature usurps authority and wrongly places responsibility on the Creator. In the first, we recognize the God who is. In the second, we recognize as god one who is not. “Mine!” is speech reserved for God.

Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
South Haven Baptist Church
Belton, Missouri
July 28, 2009