Our contributions to the world flow from the One whose image we bear, whether we know it or not. Some of these offerings bring honor to our Creator; others certainly bring grief.

I find that my own cultural interactions and contributions are a mixed bag. I also see that God’s refining work in me increasingly frees me to better invest my gifts for good rather than ill. Much of that refining is directly related to how well I know God. A. W. Tozer was correct: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

What I think about God affects everything, including my willingness to be exactly who He created me to be: a created, dependent creature, redeemed by the Savior. My place is secure as a dependent one; I do not need to usurp God’s role.

Yet, I find myself giving it a go, whether it’s in managing and manipulating people and circumstances, in glory seeking, or in self-soothing with the abuse of good gifts. My ability to play God is subtle. It is core to my independent bent that keeps me detached from my Savior who is able and willing to meet my every need. But too often, I don’t want to be needy. I want to pretend I am self-sufficient and strong. This is why my thoughts about God are of utmost importance. What I think about God affects what I think about me, and typically those thoughts swing from one extreme to the other, from superhero to villain. I need right thoughts about God so that I am free to simply be me: a redeemed, dependent, grateful, joyful, trusting child.

Jordan Andlovec addresses our improper sense of God and self in this issue’s cover article, “Information Addiction and the Dilemma of Playing God.” Our tendency to play God is common to us all, as evidence with this ground-leveling statement: “Whether we were the overeager kid in class hoping to impress the teacher or comic book enthusiast rattling off characters to the cute girl at the bookstore, we’ve all felt that need to be acknowledged for our impressive memory or our intellectual prowess.”

The challenge is to remember who God is and who we are so that our intellectual prowess doesn’t morph into blinders that affect our perceptive abilities. By way of illustration, Paul Putz identifies a few missteps in Matthew Paul Turner’s Our Great Big American God: A Short History of Our Ever-Growing Deity.

One thing is certain: our understanding of God and self is a process with no end. Keeping our frailties and God’s perfections in mind will serve us well as we learn to play the part we’ve been granted and leave the God-role to the only One who is capable.

—Erin Straza

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