Reflections on Being Human

Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26  NASB

Make mankind – I want to be human.  That means I need to be in conversation with You.

I want to be fulfilled.  That means I need to be obedient to You.

I want to be joyful.  That means I need to be used by You.

Does this seem too selfish?  After all, it’s all about what I want.

No, it’s not selfish because it is also exactly what You want.

You chose me.  You want me to be human, to be fulfilled, and to be joyful.  In order for that to occur, You know that I must converse with You always, I must be obedient to You, and I must be used by You.  My desires and Your desires converge.

But do my desires align with my motivation?  What is the passionate core of who I am?  Discovering my driving force is the key to understanding how I am designed to become who You intended.

God made us with the stamp of His image built into our very existence.  If we are to become all that He intended us to be, we must grow along the line of the image He designed.  To do anything else is to move away from our true humanity.  That’s the difference between instinct and decision.

Animals have instinct.  They behave according to the automatic inner voice hard-wired into them.  They do not act on the basis of free choice.  They are not capable of turning away from that inner voice and doing what is contrary to instinct.  They live in direct response to the divine will within.  If sin is knowing what isright and not doing it, then it seems impossible for an animal to sin.  In the world of instinct, there is no right and wrong.  There is only desire and fulfillment.  I must ask myself if I am devolving into instinct, just doing what seems hard-wired in me, or if I am acting on the basis of choice—and often choosing not to do what seems hard-wired in me.

David Fohrman points out that it is possible for human beings to mimic this animal intelligence.  Human being also have an inner voice.  That inner voice connects us to animal behavior because it also operates on the basis of desire and fulfillment.  We recognize this reality when we talk about the instinct to survive or the “herd” effect of conformity without conscience.  Men can be animals.  They can live exclusively on the basis of desire, but when they do, we are repulsed and ashamed.  We recognize the difference between human behavior and animal instinct even when we see creatures like us acting like animals.

In order to be human, desire must be domesticated.  When it is not domesticated, animal instinct reigns.  While instinct is perfectly appropriate for animals, it is not adequate for human beings.  In the sense that humanity is linked with the rest of the animal kingdom, human beings share this common inner voice of instinct.  But we are not merely a higher form of animals (as Darwinians would have us believe).  The Scriptures teach that we humans are also linked with the divine.  We are in His image.  We carry the breath of God in us.  That breaks the chain of desire and fulfillment in a very special way.  We could listen to the inner voice that connects us to the animal kingdom, but we are asked to listen to something else—the voice of God.  We are uniquely equipped to decide to act according to a voice that is outside of our being.  To become human is not to cultivate and refine the inner voice of passion and procurement.  To become human is to enter into an active, decision-making conversation with the other link in our existence, the link that depends on the breath of God.  To become human is to listen to the external designer and be obedient to Him despite our connection to animal instinct.

I want to be human.  That means listening to the other side of me and acting accordingly.  That is the only way to be truly human—to be human as God intended.

Topical Index: human, instinct, choice, Genesis 1:26