Dear Friends,
I thought this up the other day…
On a beautiful morning in Heaven, God an Lucifer were walking. Surrounded by awesome sights the human mind cannot comprehend. The path itself made of gold, platinum and inlaid with mythril.
Lucifer was berating God again, “It was a mistake giving those beasts souls… and free will.”
God replied, “They have potential.”
Lucifer pounced, “Potential, what even is that? In a few thousand or million years they could amount to something? I think not. They eat their own poo!”
God patiently smiled and said, “They’ll learn, and not by divine nature, they’ll learn by trial and error. Which is only possible if they have souls and free will.”
Lucifer became incensed and replied, “They’re beasts! They don’t deserve free will!”
God said, “I gave you free will, why not them?”
Lucifer stood upright and said, “I have a divine nature, theirs is of the filth of life… blood, hunger and suffering. Enlightenment can never come from such a place.”
God stopped walking and looked Lucifer in the eye. God said, “What I gave to you by divine nature, they will learn by free will, struggle and strife. In the end they will understand it while you just know.
Lucifer became furious and said, “I’ll show you!”
God muttered, “You will only show yourself.”
Do you think free will is something integral to our existence here? Why else would a good God allow evil in the world? That free will must be so important that God is willing to accept suffering. If freewill is so important to God himself then, isn’t it something we should embrace as well? Not for license… but for liberty. The liberty to do the right thing, not because it is required, but because we freely choose to do it. When there is an egoistic option, and we choose the selfless good option, we are transcending our Earthly nature. Maybe, that is why free will is so important. Because unless good is chosen, freely and with full knowledge of the options, good doesn’t really exist. That’s the sacrifice that God demands, not the sacrifice of some bewildered animal or hapless victim… but of our own selfishness.
Perhaps Lucifer in the story is not doing his own will, by testing mankind, but has been manipulated into it by God? Because to become fully realized morally, spiritually and psychically, we have to be tested. Individually, nationally and as a species. Those tests are written down in history and we are expected to learn from the results. That we don’t isn’t a failure of the lessons but our failure to learn them. Because we don’t want to sacrifice our own selfishness, we prefer to harm some victim and call that a sacrifice. Some, like the ancient Phoenicians, would rather sacrifice their own babies, then give up their egoism. Like today’s pro abortion zealots. Lucifer in this scenario is a dupe, not a king, rebel or chieftain… he is a mark.
Why would God manipulate Lucifer into testing us, well, we already answered that, because free will is so important. Free will isn’t an end though, it’s a means. It’s a tool to hone our understanding of the world, physical, moral and spiritual. Our burdens, Lucifer’s tests if you will, are designed to teach us right from wrong. We have been given the yardstick to go by, the Golden Rule, but implementing it means sacrificing too much selfishness. So we muddle in the middle, anytime we start to get a handle on things, we forget the lessons of the past, and repeat them, with the same results.
God Bless,
John Pepin
