God and me
Proverbs 11: The more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.
Western culture exalts the individual. In the words of the song, “best of all, I did it my way.” We like our independence. It’s true even in our religion. We Protestants don’t have a pope and we don’t even want the church to tell us what to believe. Instead, we prefer “us and God” — an approach that can often be more truthfully stated, “Me.” We don’t have a pope, but when we’re honest with ourselves, we like it when we can be our own pope: “I’ll get my Bible and decide for myself what it says.” Now, I know that there are some positive aspects to this. After all, the “protestors” who became the “Protestants” did have something to protest about. Still, doing religion “my way” isn’t necessarily an improvement. Doing it “my way” leads to aberrations of doctrine. Walking down the “me” road isn’t the road to God. In fact, it’s the original path away from God that’s described in the opening pages of our Bibles. Learning to listen to others and even being willing to submit to the authority of those who the larger body of believers has recognized to be uniquely prepared and gifted to lead will, in the words of the proverb “better your chances” of staying on the right road to God.
Take Away: “Me and God” quite often is really just “me.”