I have good news and bad news.
The bad news—which is actually good news—is this: you didn’t create the universe, so you don’t get to make the rules.
The One who did is a loving Creator who wants only good for His creation. His rules are not burdensome, and there is no evil in Him. The problem has never been God’s character; it’s human resistance to authority that isn’t self-generated.
You didn’t make yourself anything. If you’re smart, guess who made you smart. If you’re musical, guess who made you musical. This one will irritate you, I know. If you’re rich, guess who made you rich. No, you’re not a self-made man or woman. If you have wealth, the Lord set the stage that way, though credit where it’s due: good job making productive use of the circumstances. Now do a good job dispersing it. You’re not rich so you can buy a bigger yacht.
I get a kick out of reading God’s interaction with Job. God doesn’t soothe Job’s feelings—He reminds him who runs things. Job felt he was getting a raw deal, but he was evaluating eternity through a mortal lens. I try to get people to look at life with a wide-angle view. Life starts and never ends. How it unfolds after the starting point is largely up to you. You can do it God’s way, or you can trial-and-error your way into a corner and then stare at the walls wondering how you got there.
I’ve watched people seriously screw things up. To be honest, I did it my way at times too. Looking back, I felt pretty retarded—because stubborn independence tends to feel intelligent right up until it detonates.
Love is one of the areas where people most reliably make bad decisions. Romantic desire exists for the survival of the species, which is precisely why God attached rules to it. One of them is not being unequally yoked. People challenged that constantly throughout my years as a pastor. I never enabled anyone who wanted to ignore it, because I watched too many of those relationships implode. They always insisted it was different—at least for the first few years. Then divorce became reasonable, and “incompatibility” suddenly explained everything. Humans are stubborn, and apart from being Spirit-led, we routinely make dumb choices. I refused to marry born-again believers to the unsaved.
Life in the physical realm is brief. It’s amazing, I’ll grant that, and we tend to treat it as if it’s everything. The reality is that it matters for one primary reason: this is where you determine your eternal existence. Strip everything else away, and that’s the point.
God created you. No, you are not a biological accident determined by DNA and assembled by random chance. A straightforward reading of Scripture makes it clear that this is not how reality works. You were designed with purpose, capacity, and a defined sphere of influence. What you do with that is on you.
Some people choose to align themselves with the ruler of this small planet. Scripture identifies Satan as the prince of this world—a spiritual being who got too big for his britches and decided he should be God. He’s terrible at being god, but he’s exceptionally skilled at lying and deceiving. His objective is simple: deceive as many as possible and spoil their eternity.
Why does the Lord tolerate him? That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, and philosophers have been tripping over it for centuries. Interestingly, Scripture doesn’t answer it. The Bible clearly defines Satan’s nature and even references his original role—an archangel associated with worship—but it never explains why he’s been permitted to interfere with those made in God’s image. I’m content to leave that alone. If God didn’t see fit to explain why He lets the idiot run around loose, my speculation doesn’t need publication.
What is made clear is this: his end is settled. Judgment is coming, and it will be final. Until then, he offers alternatives to serving the Lord. Don’t be stupid enough to take them. His alternatives lead to the same kind of eternity he’s headed for—and it isn’t pleasant.
So do this. Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your Lord.
