Enhanced authenticity

 This week's verses are Romans 1:18-23:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

  Paul here is talking about an important aspect of our relationship with God. We are meant to acknowledge God and glorify and worship him. We are meant to imitate him and cooperate with his plan for the world. But most of the time we just live our lives as though He doesn't exist.

The universe is created with distinctive traits that reveal God's greatness. Even before we had the scientific sophistication to be able to see the intricacy and exquisite math of how things work, people still saw the beauty of God's creation and the wisdom and care that made it all work. We have no excuse.

Man was originally created and placed into the garden to bring glory to God through his godliness. God arranged a tiny representative sample of the universe for him to experience in communion with him, like a tasting platter of all the different things God had created in the days of creation.

But like Adam, we drift and then we turn away. Even if we acknowledge that God exists and died for our sins, we don't make any effort to commune with him or do his work on earth. We begin to set our own priorities and make our own rules and define our own reality. And then we find that we have become like animals, self-sustaining flesh living in darkness.

This self-centered delusional departure from righteousness brings God's wrath. We are made by him and for him to serve a purpose. There are a few things we could look to as analogies for what this must be like.

Imagine you had a dog, and the dog's purpose was to guard your house and protect you and your friends. But imagine the dog decided to befriend the thieves and attack your friends instead. How long would you keep the dog?

Or imagine you bought a hammer, but every time you tried to use the hammer, the head would fall off and land on your foot. How long would you keep that hammer?

Or imagine you built a computer so that it could do your finances, but instead of doing your finances it just ignored what you typed and gave wrong answers. How long would you keep that computer?

So, as Christians, we have to ask ourselves, do we function as designed? Are we living out our purpose to glorify God and give thanks and be in communion with him? Or are we becoming dim and savage and more defective in our isolation from Him?

It's simple to start back on the right path. As Paul says, the universe is full of things that bring glory to God and for which we can be thankful. And we can simply acknowledge him as God and accept that there is more to the universe than just chasing after our own personal needs. We don't have to figure it all our on our own.

So, look for the beauty of God's creation, be thankful for it, and learn the patterns of his righteousness so that you can glorify him through your approach to life. Better to shoot for the glorious image of the eternal God than to become a dumb ungrateful animal destined for slaughter.