iGod, tieGod

I want God to tie my shoes.

And while he’s at, to buy me some shoes. Lots of them. And pants and shirts and suits and ties. All to keep in a nice house, to wear to a good job, to compliment a life well-appointed with success, purpose, fulfillment, happiness, and blessing.

Of course, the Cousin of Jesus said something a bit different. “I am not worthy to tie and untie the shoes of The One, Jesus Christ.”

John would be happy to fit Jesus with some shoes (make his paths straight?). To be the tailor of God. To be about Jesus’ success, purpose, fulfillment; to bring him happiness and to bless him.

I recognize a tendency in my own life, and in the lives of many Christians everywhere, to seek God as nothing more than an Opening Act. God as the one who plays before me (on the cross?) all in order to usher in the majesty of me. And bearing a cross certainly does not fit into my schedule of events.

He is my foundation, but I am the house.
His written word is the place I go to support my vision of worship, of religion, of life.
His Spirit’s purpose is to magnify my ministry.
God is the solution to my problems.
God is the safety net, I am the high-wire act.
He is the one who blesses my career, my romance, my dreams.
He is the champion of my conservatism, my traditionalism.
He is the champion of my liberalism, my progressivism.
He is, handily, the steroids that boost whatever it is I want to do and be.
He is Human Growth Hormone.

And so (changing metaphors) I shape my own, selected, God Playlist, with the tunes that fit within the song of my life. This is My God.

Or, more accurately yet, iGod.

I suspect a lot of disappointment/fulfillment with life is tied to who is tying the shoes and whose shoes are being tied?