Yesterday, I was involved in a brief conversation that caught me completely off guard. This person said that God was working everything out in her life. She was being obedient (I first thought...Man, Wish I could do that) and because of that, God is working things out for her in the areas of relationships, job, and spiritual life. After the brief statement from the individual, I walked away...numb. She could have been absolutely correct, God could have been working things out just right. But, I wonder how often we say that God is doing this and God is doing that when we really have no clue about such things. I call this GODspeak. Most of the time, I don't even know what I am doing, I think I do but I am usually in a fog. I have no clue what my wife is doing...and my 5 year old son..I cannot even fathom!! If I cannot gauge the actions of humans, How can I dare to say that I know what God is doing? This God we serve often does not make sense. We have tamed Him so that we can place him in our hand, gaze at him, stroke him, and then cage him...only to be released at our pleasure.
This God that we flippantly talk about like our lazy uncle is the God that:
1-Created the world out of NOTHING
2-Spared a righteous Noah, who left the Ark, planted a vineyard and passed out buck-naked drunk.
3-Made a Covenant with Abraham...the liar, son of an idol maker, who never seemed to fully believe the promise..(See Hagar...Ishmael...etc.)
4-Allowed Sarah to be pregnant at a post menopausal age...Can you say 90's
5- Loved Jacob...the scheming deceiver...allowed the 12 tribes to flow from him.
We are just in the early stages of Genesis, and already this God makes no sense!! Usually we use God to affirm our own decisions, and desires. Because if I say God is involved...who would dare dispute or question.Back to the conversation.. So, if this relationship turns out to be a total bummer, if the woman loses her job, or becomes ill, does this mean God is not involved? Perhaps happiness is not always equal to Divine Intervention.What if one is born, the purity of his mother is questioned, he is from the wrong side of the tracks, nothing important happens in his childhood worth noting, he hangs out with a small gang of people of questionable reputation, and he dies a lonely death at a young age...Is God involved? If not, then the life of Christ described above is fruitless. God is often understood most clearly during times of pain and darkness.Televangelists speak of God as a Cosmic ATM. If you pull this lever, pray this prayer, sow this seed into their ministry, then God will BLESS you. God is not a trained monkey, responding to our stimulus...required to respond. Jesus, had nothing of material significance and could have used a battery operated beard and moustache trimmer...but He had enough. We have made him too cozy, too explainable, too chumsy. C.S. Lewis described Aslan, the God/Christ/redeemer figure in his Narnia series this way when the children ask if He is a Safe Lion, "Of course he Isn't Safe....But He is Good." Much more than a hot pot on a stove...we should handle Him with Great Care. He is the Enigma, the Unknowable Fact, the Intimate Stranger...the Aggressive Lover...the quiet Storm. What enigma is he to You??
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