We can be better

Again, I have wandered away for a bit.  Holy week does that to me and there have been a lot of mundane things wrapped in religion which have exacerbated that normal trend for me.

There are other things, too.  Spring has come in full force, with Leonine winds which have blown the cobwebs from my mind and rains which have softened the parched landscape of my heart.

And again I am at essentialism.  What is the core of what we know to be true.  The Divine has given us Free Will, the fundamental choice of doing what is right, what is wrong and nothing.  Some see this as a trap to ensnare the unwary, the careless or those who take their eyes from the eternal prize for but a moment.  But those would be the motives of a G-d of hate, of malice and pettiness.  That comes from a deity who sets us up for failure.

A G-d who loves us, cares about us and wishes us to succeed would have it a different way.  Free will is the essence of what gives humanity hope.  It is the opportunity for us to engage ourselves, our fellow man and our Creator.  It is the chance, every day, for us to be better than we are.   It is the hope that we can follow Christ.  As Athanasius said, "God became man so that man could become God."

We can do that, be as Christ and embrace the Divine in whose image and likeness we are made.

We can be better.