because I said so...

The above four words have to be the most hated of any other by children. It's irritating when parents, who can't come up with any better reason for what they're asking use the reply "because I said so..." Fortunately, my parents were usually pretty good about giving us reasons for doing or asking the things they did... not always... but mostly. When they gave that response though... OH MY GOSH, did I want to hit the fan. I mean if they didn't have a good reason for telling me to close the door, pick up my room, vacuum the floors, not eat that second cookie, or whatever... then why tell me in the first place? Because they said so!

But what was the problem exactly? I mean, why was it such a problem for me that my parent's used the "because I said so" reasoning. Ultimately, I think it has to do with control and being in charge. No matter if I was 5 or 15, I wanted to be able to decide for myself that a given request was reasonable, and then maybe I would comply. My parents on the other hand wanted to establish that they were in charge and whether I liked it, understood it, or wanted it, they were the bosses. Like I said before, with my parents this was the exception and not the rule.

The Christian walk is not too dissimilar. The Bible is full of commands, and promises. Responsibilities and blessings. More often than not when we come upon a command or rule in Scripture there is some sort of reasoning behind it. But there are times when we have to accept things simply because God said so. For a lot of people that simply will not cut it. People want to do things on their own, make decisions for themselves, they don't want to be ruled but to rule... and so they need reasons. The result is that people try to discredit the Bible, they try to cast doubt on the authenticity, they deny there is a God altogether, and finally place the crown of deity on their own heads.

We end up looking like spoiled children, not ready to accept the truth but exchange it for a lie (Romans 1:25). And what is the truth. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness..." (2 Timothy 3:16). Because God is God it should be enough that "He said so". If we fail to see that then we fail to live as God created us to live and will be end up spending more time trying to justify our lives then actually living them.