Some of you reading this title will immediately be drawn back to Saturday afternoons, many years now past. Others of you will only be able to conjure up the familiar image of the masked man. Those who actually experienced the show, and that time, will no doubt remember the image of the masked man on the white horse as a character who stood for justice and doing the right thing.

The Lone Ranger and his faithful companion “Tonto” rode the old west and brought justice to the world. They had the highest of moral ethics and the desire to enforce the law and truth wherever they went. I remember so vividly wanting to be like that character, righting the wrongs of the world. Like every other human, I have my faults and made some wrong choices in my life. Overall though, I have, like most, aspired to the higher road of truth, fairness and justice.

The Lone Ranger gives us something to shoot for, something to aspire to, something to strive towards. The challenge is that we usually have to give up something, in order to emulate something else. Our lives are not fixed. We have to pick and choose our way through life moment-to-moment and day-by-day. To do so gradually begins to form a pattern of beliefs and behaviors that we tend to repeat over and over, sometimes so automatically that we no longer even realize that we’re doing it.

When we look to something that represents an image of who we want to be, it often requires that we do something new. Did you ever notice that this new image is always a higher image? Humans never desire or aspire to be less. If they do walk down that road, it is usually a process of feeling defeated and giving up on life, not an aspiration to be less.

The short form of understanding these human complexities is that we are actually aspiring to be more Godly. There seems to be a natural tendency within human beings to seek and fulfill a spiritual need and to aspire to continually grow and fulfill that higher image of self, which ultimately is the image of God. We then not only seek the fulfillment of knowing God, but we continue to seek being more like God. Remember what the serpent said to Eve in the Garden of Eden? Genesis 3:5 – For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. To prove that it came to pass that way, we look at the words of God, recorded in Genesis 3:22 – Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.” That desire to be more like God is still alive and well in mankind. Ask a little child. They’ll not deny the existence of God unless they’ve been taught to. Every little child I’ve ever met believes in the existence of God, unless they’ve purposely been taught not to.

We live in an era where there seem to be many people fighting against this natural tendency. Instead they strive to rebel in order to prove themselves unique and different by their independence from the normal tendency to seek after what is good or just, which is the tendency to seek after God as His children. What does this all mean? Apparently, when we do fight our natural tendency to follow and conform to the image of God and goodness, we automatically enter into a prideful area that focuses on self. We define what we want as good, even if it disagrees with God’s definition of good. Perhaps the secret isn’t in trying to be like the Lone Ranger after all. Perhaps it is better to aspire to be more like Tonto, the faithful companion, and be the faithful companion of God.

Blessings!

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