Do you think that God is good? That he is right in the things he has done, created, caused in your life?
I have been struck by the view of God we have. I have been greatly saddened by many comments I have had people say to me because they reflect a belief that God is not good, that he desires awful situations for us.
I believe that God uses the hardness of life to teach us lessons but I do not believe that he causes destructive pain in our lives. Life is hard enough living in an imperfect world, God doesn't desire to give us more.
And yet we often believe that when life is going good, it's going to have to get hard again because we wouldn't want to get too comfortable. When we feel like life is a real blessing we believe that a depression or financial stress or pain is just around the corner because we couldn't have an enjoyable life, we don't deserve love or goodness and so really we should just get what we deserve.
But do you see what sort of incorrect view of God this is? What does it say that we believe about God if we have come to this conclusion?
Do we believe that God is slow to anger and abounding in love? That his love stretches to the skies? That we will walk through the fire and not be burned?
Or do we believe that God places us in the fire in the hopes that our scars remind us of some lesson that we have to learn? And that what God sees in us is not his beautiful creation but something that always needs work, needs to be changed and is constantly doing wrong? I just don't see that God operates like that.
I realized recently that I had started to believe that it was wrong to desire good, fruitful, loving relationships. That it was wrong to pray for a good place to live next year, that it was wrong to desire that it would be a good experience, one that builds and encourages me. I had begun to believe that every experience was going to be hard, destructive and the like. That I have all these things that are wrong with me that need to be made right and the only way for them to be made right is through hard circumstances. That we have to stay in awful abusive relationships, hard destructive situations, caring for people in a way that allows ourselves to be destroyed by their harshness. And of course we don't say anything to them or work to change the situation because this is what God wants for us, to give and be destroyed by the world. We don't see ourselves as worthwhile and therefore we don't deserve any better.
Yet, what if...what if God wanted good things for us, what if he was looking at all times for chances to give us good things, peace and joy. I'm not talking about material items, I'm not talking about fame. I'm talking about loving relationships, peace and joy, hope for life. I believe he wants to give us things. And yet we walk around in lives that reflect a God that intentionally abuses and destroys us.
In Matthew 10 Jesus tells his disciples that if they are persecuted in a village they should flee. Go somewhere else he tells them, get out of destructive situations. There are other people to tell about me other places. There are other places to be.
Now, I do believe that life is just plain hard sometimes, that sometimes we have to stay in hard situations to see them through. That pain is very real and happens in this world we live in. But I believe that God gives us the strength and resilience to be in them. I just see so many people exhausted, sad, and discouraged in their lives because they choose to stay in situations or relationships that are destructive.
Jesus said that he came to give us life more abundantly. MORE abundantly. Do our lives reflect this truth, this beauty, this wonder of something more than the rest of the world lives. Many times I have spent time with Christians and just thought...man this is not how we're supposed to treat each other. Am I supposed to feel encouraged or discouraged after spending time with people who know Jesus?
And then i have spent time with people where I leave feeling so encouraged, so blessed, so loved and appreciated, like I was important. I loved those times, I feel like myself, like I can do this living thing, this Jesus thing in the world.
And if some flawed Christian individuals can make me feel encouraged, loved and important...then shouldn't a relationship with God do so much more? I believe the answer is yes.
So my thoughts today are: it isn't wrong to get out a situation that is destroying you, to take a break from someone who is destructive to have in your life, to find new people to spend time with if those you are with pull you farther from an understanding of a loving God.
"Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zeph 3:16-17
Note the words in this verse.."delight" "love" "rejoice". This is the beauty of grace. This is how he sees us even if we are messed up, we don't deserve goodness and blessing but in the beauty of his mercy and grace he gives them to us. Don't taint or destroy this gift he offers because you see yourself as not good enough. Humble your heart to accept his beauty into your life.
12 comments:
Good post, my friendly babbling bcakes.
The thoughts you express here are well articulated, very perceptive and quite on target. I find your sentiments rather easy to commiserate with and it saddens me a bit to think that the Christian community in which you are surrounded, at times fails to support & reveal God's perfect love. I guess that that's the downside to being human--the whole imperfection dealie. Here's a big hug just for you! *hug* Yeah, I know it's nowhere near as good as the real thing, but it's about as close as the internet can manage ;)
Be encouraged,
LE.
Thanks LE. I appreciate your thoughts. I'm glad my ramblings make sense. may you be encouraged as well.
Good stuff B.
On a similar note, I've always found it paradoxical that Christians can resign themselves to the fact that God is 'out to get them'. For one who doesn't believe in Jesus' life and death, such a sentiment would be logical; but there's an intrinsic contradiction between believing that God hates you, but also that He died for you. Maybe the problem is, as you suggest, that Christians aren't passing on the love of God to each other. But furthermore, I think we are too presumptuous in linking our hardships with the character of God. For one thing, our conception of what's a 'hardship' and what's a 'blessing' are inherently human. Secondly, we fail to realize that there's no problem with a good God allowing evil, especially if He's provided a way out of it... I guess that's a bit of a tangent. Sorry.
Tomahawk: Tangents are always welcome. thanks for your thoughts.
I guess the reason I sometimes struggle to believe that God wants to give up good things is that often I see so little of it... I'm in South Africa right now volunteering in rough communities . SA is a mostly Christian country, where wo go to church on Sunday and pray for peace, love and healing, and all week we deal with drugs, rape, killing, and it's all getting worse.
I don't think God is actively promoting the suffering, but he sure doesn't seem to quick to use him omni-power to solve problems either.
Filth-man: I appreciate what your saying and I'm sure most of us have had similar thoughts. My response might seem cliche, but as it seems to me, if God intervened in His omnipotence to fix our problems, what would be the purpose of our existence as free-willing beings? God has already provided an escape for us drug-using, raping, murderous humans, but we have to want to escape. As long as there's a will among humans to resist God, evil will always plague us. For me, the presence of evil makes it easy for me to believe in God, because it makes it clear to me that He's the only way out of it. And if that very idea is the whole reason that God allows evil - so that we can see Him in contrast - then that's reason enough for me. In keeping with what Aristotle has already said (although I won't get into it), it's as if, if there is God, then there must be something that is the antithesis of God. If there is love, then there must be an opposite of love. So we choose love and we choose God.
Tomahawk, that makes sense.
I don't doubt the existence, or even the goodness of God so much... just the idea that, because we belong to God, He will necessarily give us good things. I'm sure God wants to bless us, but it seems other things are higher up on His agenda. Respect for free will, spiritual warfare in some form and shaping some of us into better people (often through suffering) seem to be God's priorities. These seem to take precidence over the phyisical- and possibly even spiritual- happiness of humanity at large.
Exactly.
thanks Lisa. I really needed to hear that I think. we need to hang out... badly.
Well i'm a little slow on the blogs sometimes and am therefore way behind in the comment section but I was thinking some similar things to filth-man, which whoever you are, is an awesome name. I think its not so much that I believe that God causes these horrible things but that he allows them to happen. And cliches don't cut it sometimes, there is a lot of terrible things out there, bad people seem to win all the time. The poor are getting poorer, rich getting richer and I feel powerless to stop it. I just wish it wasn't like that but I guess that I am longing so badly for the kingdom of God on earth. But I think we are supposed to bring that and christians are bringing it, which is cool, it just seems like a faint candle on a mountain side sometimes. God is good, but I just wonder how he can resist acting sometimes... cause I know he cares more than me and I am mad, so he must be raging! Thanks for the post Lisa, it was great.
ps what was the deleted comment... I am always terribly curious as to what was said... email me!
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