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… I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live
Deuteronomy 30:19
In my previous posts for this title, I raised two important questions asking: 1) what may happen when a puppet turns against its master? and 2) why do we end up in situations that are distasteful and/or unexpected where we seem to find no way out? In this post, I am going to attempt to answer these questions by proposing some potentially life-changing ideas that I happen to think are also deep.
I will start with this. Generally, puppets are traditionally controlled by their puppeteers via strings. The audience experiencing a puppet show simply relate to the animate movements of the puppet to follow the story that its master is telling. The master understands this and makes sure that the motion, pause, stance, drift, voice and every little detail surrounding the puppet during the performance, is carefully curated to carry a specific set of emotions which contribute to the masterpiece being created for the audience.
You see, in the hands of the master, the wooden figure is a very important tool for achieving that specific purpose. So, in a nutshell, in this great show, there is the master, the puppet and the goal of the master which translates into the purpose of the wooden figure. Herein lies the comparison to mankind with a slight difference.
In the great show of life, we are each puppets among a larger group of other puppets and just as described earlier, we each have a purpose whether we accept it or not. To take it further, each purpose is uniquely puppet-specific. The analogy follows then that there should exist a master in the background who plays the role of the controller. But there is a catch, an important one at that, and it’s this.
In the great show of life, we are each puppets among a larger group of other puppets
Unlike the puppet show previously described, mankind has the power of choice. This is very crucial because we can use this power to decide against any controller we may disagree with for any reason; this, applies even to God, the one who created us— making him our certified puppeteer!
Over many generations, mankind has constantly showed disregard for God. We cut ties and officially became unstrung puppets. Unfortunately, since puppets cannot do much without a master, almost out of necessity, we tied our strings to whatever we considered deserving and became slaves to all kinds of distractions: some to fame, others to riches, power, ambition, lust, pride and so on. We surrendered our strings to counterfeit masters who consistently lead us astray, away from our purpose.
We surrendered our strings to counterfeit masters who consistently lead us astray
Fortunately, God inherently created us with a signal detector that always points us towards him. So, ever so often when we get lost, we are able to somehow raise our heads to the direction of the beacon and ask questions we expect to be heard because deep down we know he never left us!
Such moments are regularly laced with epiphanies that make us realize: 1) there is always a controller. We may not see or even feel the presence of the strings; nonetheless, there is always going to be something invisibly driving us towards one direction or the other. 2) power of choice is an illusion unless we place it in our maker, God. This way we know our interests will always be protected. 3) surrendering our strings to God will save us so much worry, fear and despair because he is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.
surrendering our strings to God will save us so much worry, fear and despair
You see, God is the ultimate master of all that is seen and unseen. He gives our lives purpose and makes living meaningful. All we really have to do with our power of choice is to choose to hand over our strings to him and recognize him as the one true maestro who can create masterpieces with us. Choose God today and you would have chosen life for you and your children!