Greetings Dear Reader,
As I move through my thinking
about the image of God in all of us, I ponder one of the things that I have
never been truly able to fathom to my own satisfaction. We possess an innate morality. We are born with a sense of right and
wrong. There is a rising body of
research that can prove this, but if I am honest with my own heart I know that
I know.
I will not argue the existence
of this moral compass but if it exists it points toward something other than us
initiating it. God has a complete
ownership of right. He imprints this on
us so that we can see the places where we lack it. He has instilled in me a moral compass that
rarely steers me wrong if I listen to it.
When I choose not to obey
that ethereal pointer I regret it. It
leaves me without excuse for the things I do that I know better. Whenever I have violated my moral load stone
if has hurt others and caused pain. When
I listen to its direction things go well.
I realize that this is only
experiential evidence but it is my evidence.
I cannot determine what is right and wrong for others but there is a
baseline of what is right and wrong. It
comes from somewhere other than the collective agreement of society. We can attempt to reason away the image of
God in our morality but there is no logical reason for it if it is not
imprinted on us by the manufacturer. It
is our desire to not be accountable to it that drives us to discredit it.
My moral compass shows me my
need for God. It reassures me that I am
not perfect and that I have flaws. It
shows me when I am selfish and when I put my needs ahead of others. The fact that I know I am a crooked stick in
a bundle of crooked sticks is what shows me my need for God and his righteousness.
Some say one cannot know
where this sense of morality comes from.
Some claim to even be happy no knowing.
I think that this aspect of the Imago Dei is valid evidence that
something beyond ourselves draws us toward his nature. He wants us to see that we are broken and the
he wishes to heal us. It is our brokenness
that pushes us to deny him and ignore the call.
The compass is a pointer. It is a pointer that tells me where I need to
be headed. When I feel incapable of
heading that way on my own it also points me toward the source of direction and
strength to get there. Sometimes I
reject the direction for my own purposes.
When I embrace this image in
me I can tell in which direction to head.
I can also tell because it pushes me to do the opposite of the selfish
and self-centered. I am created in the
image of God. I am intended to reflect that image and my innate morality is
intended to show me how to get there. If
followed it points me toward the only true north; Christ.
Wishing you joy in the
journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to
them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule
of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things
from his great treasure store."
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