The Great Delusion: I am God!

Posted: 20 Feb 2009 01:00 AM CST
Gen 11:1-9 / Mk 8:34-9:1
The first eleven chapters of Genesis develop a grand theme, namely, our need for God which is hidden under our illusion that we ourselves can be God. That was the issue in the story of Adam and Eve’s fall, it was the issue in the tower of Babel story, and it’s the issue that keeps resurfacing in our own lives: Pretending and even believing that we can be God.

It’s the ultimate delusion, bordering on madness, but it recurs reliably in every generation in every human being. For some reason, ego irrationally whispers to each of us, just as the snake did to Adam and Eve, ‘You can be god.’ And fools that we are, we believe it. We put ourselves at the center of our own little universe, and we forget whence we came and where we are going. It’s a heady delusion for a while, till reality begins to sink in with our arrival at some crossroad where events are beyond our control. The awakening is inevitably painful and denial almost always persists beyond all reason.

Eventually, the reckoning is too clear to be denied: I am not God! I need the real God! Without him I will perish! It’s the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of our great pilgrimage homeward to that place where we truly belong, in God’s embrace. Why waste another day in the land of fiction. Step into reality and start your trip home now.