Thoughts On God...

 In a recent post, I wrote about "The Key to Happiness."

Personal morality is a concept I have thought about for some time. I often share these thoughts at a Monday night Recovery meeting that I regularly attend.

To recap: Every immoral act we commit, no matter how small, chips away at our self respect until we are one day left a self-loathing heap. Conversely, each moral act, no matter how small, builds our self-esteem and grows confidence and love for self and others - we build self-esteem through estimable acts.

This particular meeting is regularly attended by an ordained pastor who volunteers his time helping some of the guys at a local recovery house. He is a lovely man who has an honest love for the men in the program and for God.  The reason I bring him up is because every time I share my thoughts on "building self-esteem via estimable acts," this godly man is quick to add the footnote, "And remember, the most important reason to be good is because it pleases God." 

While I don't disagree with this sentiment, I do question its underlying motivation for morality - does God truly require our moral righteousness solely for the sake of His pleasure? 

I think back to my childhood and the relationship between my brother and I. We fought like caged wolverines on an electrified floor. My mother, bless her heart, despised our fisticuffs and wished for nothing more than her two boys to love each other and get along. For her sake, we did our best to keep from smashing one another in the face, but we lived a LONG way from loving each other and (truly) getting along.

So, if examined, yes, we managed to keep the peace and throw up the facade of harmony, which made our mother happy. But was that what she really wanted? Or would she have preferred that we honestly get along and love one another as brothers should? I don't think anyone would argue that she would have preferred the latter (as any mother would).

We are made in the image of God, so would His preferences be any different? Does God want us to be morally upright because it pleases him? Or does he prefer we do the right thing because it is the right thing to do? 

Yes, even the smallest act of virtue pleases God, and there is no fault with being good for the sake of pleasing Him, but His genuine satisfaction comes when we uphold moral standards through selfless acts of love for others, our brothers, with no strings, simply because it's "just the right thing to do." God wants us to do the right thing, not for Him, but for our brother, for the world, and because it makes us spiritually stronger. 

His pleasure is simply a guaranteed side effect.

As for me and my brother, we get along great now. He's an honorable man of god, an exemplary husband, and an incredible father... and once I got bigger than him, he became a great brother as well.