Progressive Belief

Over chilly cans of Beck’s, a good friend and I were discussing love and commitment. He has come to the place where he believes it is in his own best interest to disengage from his family: he is separating from his wife.

I was saying that we gain the most personally not by seeking our own satisfaction, but by it's opposite: self-sacrifice. This includes the often-monotonous everyday hassles of life. I don’t think we agreed about this. I have the conviction that if my goal is me, I will get just that. That’s an ugly loneliness.

I suppose I have the same opinion about life in general. In the end, we get what we really want. I find it hard to believe that as we are ushered from this life to the next, we will try to make a case for unfair treatment due to a lack of understanding. If we ignore what we already know, God may “protect” us from further culpability by allowing us to darken our own understanding. But that’s not an excuse. Somewhere along the line, we ignored. The drunk didn’t know what he was doing when he grabbed the keys, then ran headlong into an SUV with a young mom and baby girl. But don’t try to tell him it wasn’t his fault. He lives guilt now. He did make the decision to keep drinking, and he knows he owns it, even if it's not as awful as intentionally doing it.

Life with or without God is a progressive acceptance or denial. Sin itself is progressive in the same way. Who or what is our God?