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Misplaced honor

At the heart of all poor (wrong) choices is misplaced ¹honor. We either honor (glorify - value) something more than it deserves or ¹dishonor who or what deserves it most.

Why would we do this? 

Because we do not properly see somethings true value. As a result we either assign to something greater value than it actually has or we do not recognize how valuable something truly is.


An illustration:

A starving blind man has


two items placed before him - 

1. A warm, freshly baked loaf of bread and 

2. A cold, smooth, egg like, 5 pound piece of gold (worth around $150K at today's prices) 

- who is asked to pick one. Which would he pick? 

He would likely pick the bread. 

Why? Though he is blind he can still smell it's delicious aroma and feel it's soft warmth texture but can't see what either Object is. The gold egg would be cold, heavy, odorless and tasteless. 

Also his hunger might be so desperate it overpowers his Ability to ³reason i.e. his need for ²food will overpower his ability to think clearly and properly assess the possibility of the other object having a greater value. When he holds the piece of gold he'll only know it's cold, smooth and heavy but he would not be able to determine what it is...i.e. gold, lead, steel, polished marble etc? 

Because his ability to evaluate the true value of the objects is impaired and he is limited in his ability to accurately assess that value it is highly likely he will not make the wisest choice. 

If he chose the egg over the bread it would be an act of faith (or maybe an act of stupidity according to his blind friends). The sure thing would be the warm bread. 

But he actually made his choice based on ⁴faith – an act of trust in one thing and distrust in another - that the bread was more valuable then this tasteless, odorless 5 pound "egg," when in reality the gold was of far greater value and could aquire for him all the food - and more - he needed for a long time.

Why was trust necessary in this situation. Because of the limitations of the blind man. He could not see what the objects were before him, only feel and smell them. 

So it is with all of us. Because we do not have infinite knowledge or the ability to be everywhere to observe everything in the universe there is to know, we can not assess whether God does or does not exist or what He's truly like. We have hints, but because of our appetite for immediate gratification, we ⁵opt for created things vs the Creator of those things who if far more valuable - if only because all things exist because Him. We will assess what He is like based on a limited understanding of only what we experience with our senses.

Add to the analogy a person presenting him the two objects. And that person who can see, tells him the egg like object is the better choice (but with no further information given). What would the blind man do? It all depends on how much he knows and trusts this person.

For us to choose the better of two options we must see their true value (or trust the one presenting them who clearly knows their true value) or we will not give them there proper regard - honor.

Because we can not see fully we must trust. Either choice we make requires faith...faith that our senses are sufficient to accurately assess things or faith in someone who claims to have perfect understanding, cares for us perfectly and has the complete ability (power) to deliver on what they promise-claim.

Our perception of God is skewed for many reasons, keeping us from seeing and trusting who he truly is. 

Christ said if you have seen me you have seen the Father i.e. God. If you want to know what God is like, get to know me...who I am - my heart, why I stepped into this word of suffering out of the bliss of heaven, what I did to remedy the pain, suffering and brokenness in us and the world so we could permanently and ultimately be free from it one day. When you understand these, you will know God's true heart and character and honor Him accordingly.

For a further discussion on seeing clearly click here.

_______________________________

¹Wrapped up in this idea of honor (glory) is the value, significance, and worth we give or do not give something. This is also the essence - the heart - of worship. When we honor someone according to their true worth we glorify or worship them.

²Spiritual food consists of a sense of meaning, value and purpose - in a word love. We choose that which we believe will best give us love these. But that choice is based on our limited understanding. To have true understanding we must ask someone who has perfect knowledge and who perfectly loves to reveal to us what is best. Perfect love engenders trust.

³The next time you go grocery shopping, pay attention to your choices when you're hungry versus when your not. If you have already tried this you may notice the kind of food you select will be different. When hungry you may pick more foods that require no preparation so you can eat them right away vs food that is more healthy but takes time to prepare. Our hunger affects our choice. Immediate gratification vs Delayed Gratification may dominate unless you've learned the health benefits of preparing a balanced meal and how to discipline yourself through delayed gratification i.e.  you've learned (and believe) delayed gratification is the better choice.

⁴Faith in what? Faith that what we seek will deliver on what it appears to promise.  That promise consists of something giving to us what we believe we need most. 

All choices involve faith by virtue of our limits. We are not all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere present to confirm what we seek is what we most need or whether it will give us what it appears to promise. So we most both trust that what we trust in can deliver on what it promises. And what it can deliver is in fact what is best for us (not just what we think is best).

 So the question we must ask ourselves is how is our approach working so far? If you feel it's working great and it is does not involve the Creator then you will never see him as he truly is.

Not totally unlike what Adam and Eve did.




This post first appeared on Thoughts About God, please read the originial post: here

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Misplaced honor

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