Tuesday, July 17, 2007


IT’S NOT EASY BEING GODDESS

Sajani Shakya is a living goddess. She is 10 years old, Nepalese and is about to lose her status as deity. Sajani left Neapl and came to the United States last month. She was promoting a film about Nepal's living goddesses. Unfortunately, Sajani was forbidden from leaving Nepal because of her high goddess status. I always thought the deity told humanity what the rules were and enforced them, but in Nepal they do it the other way around. The temple elders tell the deities what to do, at least in the case of the living goddesses.

So, the elders intend to demote her from deity status and install someone else. It sounds more like Miss America than living goddess. Maybe she should threaten to turn them into frogs or something. No wait, that’s a witch, not a goddess, isn’t it.

Sajani had 32 attributes of perfection. However, they seem to be physical rather than spiritual, such as the shape of her teeth, the pitch of her voice and no flaws of skin, hair and eyes. It sounds kind of like the red heifer of Judaism, which guys are trying to breed in the Deep South of the U.S.A. There can be no imperfections.

While these elders seem to create a goddess in their own image, or the image they want, God created Man in his own image (Genesis 1:26). He is sovereign and imposes his will on mankind. Men and women are to worship him.

Of course, many men and women in Christianity do create their own god, redefining God to fit their preferences. For example, there is the loving God who will not send anyone to hell. He is definitely not the God of the Bible. Then there is the God that will give you anything you want, indeed is required to give it, as long as you ask in faith. That is definitely not the God who told Paul he would not remove his thorn in the flesh, but his grace was sufficient. So, we may think this practice in Nepal is exotic, but, on closer examination, may find we do the same thing.

When you redefine God, you create an idol. The first commandment tells us not to do that (Exodus 20:3-4). But men and women will continue to create gods in their own image, to fit their needs, because they do not want to bow before the God of the universe. They want to say, I am good in my own right and so must be acceptable on my own merits. God says no. So, they create their own.

Unfortunately, the day will come when God’s forbearance ends and all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (Revelation 20:11-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Then, we will face the real God, and he will not care for our definitions.

It would be better to face this issue now.

No comments: