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During my daily walk today, I was conversing with the Lord as I often-times do. This conversation entailed the "apparent" inequality in the lives of two people that I know. I pondered upon this seemingly "unfair inequality", especially since I believe that BOTH were and are God's children.
One came from a warm, loving family and beautiful home environment. She was endowed with great beauty, charm, intelligence, talent, and warmth. She went on to be an international star in her field, adored and loved by millions. I believe that she is filled with the Spirit of God and lives her life to His Glory. She has all of the "good things" in this life that any sane person could possibly desire -- and God TOO !! She said in an interview once, "I absolutely love ALL aspects of my life." The other is a 180 degree opposite. She was raised in a materially beautiful home, but as far as I know - one with no love, nurturing, security, nor warmth toward her - dominated by a spirit of anger, criticism, and judgment. She was a very gifted, physically beautiful youth, but one driven by isolation and rebellion. She would start out well on a goal, only to have it fall apart. At around age 30, mental illness started to dominate her life, and grew progressively worse. Over the next 20 years, she would loose her beauty, grow to 300 pounds in weight -- and loose ALL desire for accomplishment, sense of adventure, goals, purpose, and spirit that had marked her younger years. She died at 51 years of age, a broken recluse with severe mental problems - having accomplished - OUTWARDLY to the eye - NOTHING ! She was cremated with only ONE person in attendance to see her out of this world. Even her own mother and brother abandoned her.
Two thoughts crossed my mind. One is from Shakespeare, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances .....". The second is Romans 9:20-23. Now taken at face value, these verses can lead to some REAL exegetical problems. They seem to state that God, being the Great Potter or Creator, thus has the RIGHT to use his "creations" any way that He wishes in the fulfillment of His purpose !!
It is these verses, in part, that lead to the (in MY mind) damnable theology that states that God specifically created some for salvation and others for damnation !! If you can believe THIS, then you believe in a "god" that knows NOTHING of compassion, justice, love or mercy - and He certainly does NOT view us as His children. He sounds more like one of the heathen "gods" that "I AM" instructed the Israelites to destroy totally !!
However, I DO believe that God has created EACH of us SPECIFICALLY to fulfill a part in His purpose and to play out a role in His "Great Cosmic Drama". For such, He has assigned to each of us certain gifts and talents to properly play "our character" and our role in the drama. As it states in the parable of the "talents", to some he gave more talents and to others lesser (Math 25:14-30).
At the end of the "play", however, He commended each "player" not upon how MANY talents they possessed, but RATHER how they used what they were given. To EACH (except for the one who did NOT use but rather BURIED his talent and chose not to participate in the play) the producer of the "play" commended them with the praise of , "Well Done - Enter into the joy of your master!!"
I believe that when "The Play" is ended and the final curtain call is taken, then will the Great Producer say to His beloved Actors (children), "I am VERY well pleased with EACH of you. To some of you I gave VERY hard parts - difficult to play - seemingly very few resources, with little or no seeming reward. To others, it might seem that I gave beautiful roles with beautiful costumes and grand lines - and the audience just loved your every performance. I assure you, as NOW you yourselves can see, that EVERY role was essential to the unfolding of my Grand Drama. Come now, the play is finished, and it is time to present the awards. Perhaps to the most difficult part will go the greatest prize !! Also, a grand celebration and banquet has been prepared for EACH and EVERYONE of you !!" |