The Song and the Flame

Seen on a church sign on the way to work last week: “Let God Change You From Victim to Victor”.

No. Just… no. Where to start?

My initial reaction was based on a deeply-rooted instinct that I have a personal responsibility to do the most I can to effect change in my life before petitioning the Gods for help. There is an old Christian saying that God helps those who help themselves. That’s something that has stuck firmly with me through every religious change I’ve gone through. I cannot simply render up my problems to the Gods and expect to sit back and wait for Them to change me. I have to put in the work myself.

A suggestion to let God change me suggests, to me, that I should relinquish that responsibility. I can’t. I won’t. And I don’t think They’d let me anyway, but that’s beside the point here. It’s important for me to be responsible for my actions.

That’s a strong moral conviction, but there’s more to it than that. There’s another saying about how with power comes responsibility — well, the reverse is true too. If I give up that responsibility and put it all on the Gods, I am also surrendering my power. And, you know, I’m not talking “rule the world” power here. I’m not talking “control people’s minds” power. Those things I don’t have anyway, and I don’t want, and I would happily give up.

There is also, though, the power to make my own decisions. The power to have some say in my own destiny. The power to be me, and not a puppet on a string. These things I will not let go willingly. And to let some god magically scrub away my problems… That implies a surrender that I will not give. It implies taking my life out of my hands and putting it in someone else’s. More, it implies taking my mind and my spirit and doing the same thing with them. Here. Make me your idea of perfect. Whatever you think. My opinion doesn’t matter. I know a lot of people find solace in the idea of giving their problems to God, but it seems a dangerous proposition to me.

Fortunately, I think my Gods would smack me silly if I tried it anyway.