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Humankind’s refusal to rely upon God is what causes even the “religious” to err. There are no strings attached from God to us. And we are free to make mistakes or deliberately hurt one another. Man has free will. God gave us a great blueprint to live by, but we refuse, at every turn, to live by that blueprint: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” Not a bad little plan, wouldn’t you say? Sounds like something that even Hollywood would go for. But mankind is an odd creature. God says, “Here is the way that you can live so that you won’t hurt each other.” And yet we, saint and sinner alike, refuse to live that way. Then when the world becomes an unkind place to live, instead of admitting our own wrongdoing, we blame God. We say, “if he was really a good God, he’d come down here and fix everything. He wouldn’t let bad things happen.” We act like God should operate us like puppets on a string. We want to be completely free of God but then curse Him when we are.

God doesn’t impose Himself upon us. This freedom we are given can’t be mistaken for indifference. My sons are in their 20’s and have free will and I wouldn’t dream of telling them how to live every minute of their lives. They are grown up guys and I love them enough to lay down and die for them, but I don’t go around sticking my nose into everything they do. I can’t follow them around to make sure they don’t hurt other people. And yet I love them and it would pain me to see them hurt another person.

This is how God is. He’s a father who has released his grown children, whom he loves enough to lay down and die for, into the world. It pains him to see us hurt each other.

The error comes when the actions of people are interpreted as the ways of God.

God is love. You can know that He loves you Thinktwice. You are valuable to him and worthwhile to his kingdom. When you are ready, He will come to you. But He will not impose.