God Cannot Be Packaged

In our world, everything has to be perfectly packaged in order to give the best possible impression.  We see the best of political candidates and celebrities.  Of course, it isn’t always the best that we see so when something is less than the best, damage control comes in and the public is given a spin on the events so things don’t seem as bad.   

We want things to go smoothly but life isn’t like that.  Even in the best of times, there is always something to cause anxiety or angst.  What is it about life that requires us to be in a constant state of tension?  I am slowing discovering that we have to learn to live with strain in our lives.  Also, we must, and I mean must, learn to quiet ourselves and listen to what God has to say.  A perfect life cannot be given to us in a nice package with a pretty bow on top.  God cannot be packaged. 

He is much too big and beyond anything we can comprehend.  He cannot be presented in a way in which we can neatly understand.  He is in the stupid, everyday, mundane, moments of life.  He is in the things we have done so many times we are sick of doing them.  God speaks to us in the moments of strain.  God is found in the poor we are called to help.  He is in the disasters. 

How is it that God can be in all these things?  If we try to put Him in a box, we miss out on so much.  When we limit God, we reduce what He is capable of.  If we can learn from God by way of the things we readily accept, how much more can we learn from things we don’t like? 

We must accept the good with the bad and look for Him in everything.  Let Him be God.

 

Why is There Suffering?

Compared to some, I haven’t experienced much suffering in my life.  Still, my heart has been broken.  I’ve been in pain.  I know loneliness and sorrow.  People wonder why there is pain and suffering in the world.  How can a just God allow it?  If He really cares about His creation, why doesn’t he blot out these bad things?

In the Old Testament, the book of Job details a painful chapter in the life of a man called Job.  God and the devil met and discussed Job.  God was pleased with Job and how he faithfully served God.  Ultimately, God allows the devil to test Job.  At first he can do anything he wants to Jobs family and belongings, but not Job himself.  After Job proves faithful after losing everything but his life and wife, God allows the devil to test him further. 

Job experiences physical and emotional pain.  He also suffers tremendous loss.  His wife tells him to curse God and die.  Friends come to visit him and comfort him.  They could hardly recognize him at first.  His suffering is so great they could not think of anything to say for a week.  In their understanding of God, you received blessings when you are faithful but punishment when you sin.  Since it appeared Job was being punished, they concluded he had sinned.  Therefore, they advised Job to repent of his sin and God would restore him. 

Job pled his innocence.  He wished for an intermediary between him and God.  He desired for someone who could lay a hand on him and God.  He wanted a comforter.  He wished he had never been born.  He believed he had been wrongfully chastised.  

Where was God?  After debating with his friends, God comes to Job.  What was the answer God gave Job?  Can you imagine this answer? “Job, the devil and I were having bet about how faithful you are.  To make you curse Me, he took away everything and gave you painful sores all over your body.  I knew you would be faithful.  Thank you.” 

If you were to know that is what the spirit world is behind the veil, would you feel better?  I believe you would be quite angry.  We do not want to be pawns.  God created us to have free will.  We want to choose our own way.  Such an answer is not comforting.  If the book of Job teaches us about why people suffer or why bad things happen to good people, I think most people would not be comforted to actually read it.  On the contrary, we would despair even more. 

Instead, God comes to Job and says, “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself up like a man and answer me.”  Then he asks questions like these:  Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth.  Can you take leviathan home as a pet?  Did you give the horse its strength?  Does the eagle soar at your command?  Have you ever given orders to the dawn?  Does the rain have a father?  Would you condemn God to justify yourself? 

Humbled, Job replies, “I am unworthy.  How can I reply?  There’s nothing that You cannot do.  You are the storm that calmed my soul.  I place my hand over my mouth.” 

So why is there suffering in the world?  Why do bad things happen?  Could it be that God knows that the ultimate end of suffering is God Himself?  When things of this world can’t satisfy our emptiness, when there is no healing for our brokenness, we will find that God will ultimately be all that we have.  When God is all that we have, we will learn that God is all that we really need. 

We Are Accountable

We are the product of our thoughts, decisions, and actions.  What we are now was shaped by what we thought and did in the past.  Therefore, our future is honed by what we think and do today.  We are accountable for our time, actions, relationships, and decisions.  This is being pressed upon me anew.  

Do we understand what we are capable of doing?  We can change the world!!  We can tear down and burn or we can build up and grow.  We can do so much good.  We can touch so many lives. People and relationships can change for the better if we would take ownership of our lives and what we are responsible for.   We could change to world if we would reach out to each other in love and understanding.  From what is going on in the world, I realize there are those who don’t want our love or understanding.  Still, there are so many that need it.  

I don’t think I can adequately state what I mean.  How I wish you could hear the conviction in my voice, see my body language.  For what I can’t say with words, oh God, let them hear between the lines.

 

Sockballs and Snowballs

My brother is 5 years older than me.  I think we had a typical relationship.  I was a little brat and he’d pound on me when he was sure he could get away with it.  We grew up in a great neighborhood with kids that had a lot of imagination. 

My brother and I (it was probably just his idea) made up a game of rolling our socks into balls and throwing them at each other.   We probably had a name for it but I don’t remember.  We would take time to ball up our socks and I would build protective walls to make things more even and for my safety.  We had designated areas we weren’t supposed to cross but if you could reach a sock on the other side of the line you could.  When we were both ready, we would start throwing socks at each other.  As it always seemed to happen, at some point, my brother would come out of his area with an armful of socks and start pummeling me in a barrage of tube socks.  He had a way of saving the most tightly packed socks for such moments and would throw them as hard as he could onto my prone form as I tried to protect myself. 

Predictably, something would hurt and I’d start crying.  If mom was home, I would go to cry and whine to her.  She would sooth me and probably yell at my brother to leave me alone.  No wonder why he seemed to take joy out of pounding on me.  I was a bratty kid. 

I remember once having a snowball fight with my brother.  He was on one side of the street and I was on the other.  We made a bunch of snowballs and then started the bombardment.  Well, it was bombardment on my side.  I was busy hiding and throwing whenever there was a lull in the snowballs heading my way.  At one point, I remember hiding behind the snow bank and sort of laughing to myself.  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gotten hurt yet.  I hadn’t even gotten hit yet.  I started to raise up and just started to blurt out, “I can’t believe I hadn’t gotten hit…”  POW!   I got nailed right in the forehead. 

Many years later, my sister and brother were in college and I was in high school.  We went to a New Year’s Eve service at church and joked about our parents who didn’t go.  The heathens!  As we went into church, it was snowing.  As we exited the church to head home, we were met with a beautiful winter wonderland.   The snow was still falling  as everyone began cleaning the snow off the cars.  I don’t remember who started it but I’m sure it was my brother throwing a snowball at me.  Although, I wouldn’t put it past my sister either.  Before you  know it, everyone from the church was involved.  Snowballs were flying all across the parking area and no one was safe or exempt.  We battled for at least 30 minutes before saying our goodbyes and giving well wishes for the new year.  Our snowball battle continued after we got home.

I remember thinking for the first time, I was an equal to my siblings.  While I would always be the baby brother, age and my size made me an equal.  I was no longer a target or pushover.  I love my family and love remembering times like these. 

The Will Of God Will Not Take You Where the Grace of God Will Not Protect You

A couple years ago one of my kids bought something for our kitchen that reads, “The Will Of God Will Not Take You Where the Grace of God Will Not Protect You.”  I like it and am happy they wanted to help decorate the house and state how we feel about God.  However, in recent months, I’ve had some misgivings about this sentiment. 

First, let me make some qualifying statements.  1. I believe God loves his creation and has its best interest in mind.  2.  I believe that God can work miracles when it comes to protecting His people.  I have experienced this protection myself when on the mission field.  3.  If it is God’s will that no harm come to you, it won’t happen.  Also, if something were to happen, God was not surprised by it and will use it for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Still, I think it is presumptuous to believe that God will always protect us from harm.  To believe that, since God wants me to do something I will be protected, is short sighted.  Also, when stacked against history, it is wrong. 

How many Christians in the armed forces have been wounded, maimed or killed?  What about people called to the mission field?   You can read the bible and see people who do the will of God don’t have a life of ease and prosperity.  Quite often, they pay with their lives.  Foxe’s Book of Martyrs documents people who paid the price for their faith. 

The bottom line needs to be this: God’s purposes are more important than any individual.  He wants the gospel shared with all nations and all people.  I do believe in praying and asking for safety for our loved ones in all things.  I also believe it good to trust God will provide safety, even providential safety.  However, in the times He elects not to provide such a blessing, we must be prepared to say as Job said after Satan gave him his worst, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Lord, please don’t let me have to say such a thing. 

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

I listened to a sermon that wrapped up a series on family.  The message combined two important things to me.  They are the story of Joseph, Israel’s favorite son, and being a legacy to your posterity. 

For those who are unaware, I love history and have been the family historian for many years.  I believe it is important  to share family stories with our children.  When my kids were little, I would tell them stories about my family and even when they were born.  I remember they always laughed when I told them stories about my wife or me.  I’ve always thought it was because they had a hard time believing we were once little like them. 

For me, the story of Joseph has always been moving.  The thought of being sold into slavery and the years he spent in prison seem so terrible.  For some reason, he chose to trust in the God of his fathers.  It wasn’t until today that I learned why his faith was strong. 

For those who may not know the story of Joseph, you can read the story starting in Genesis 37.  He was the child of Jacob’s second and favorite wife, Leah.  His older brothers wanted to kill him but decided to sell him into slavery.  Due to his faithfulness and hard work, he was put in charge of his master’s house.  However, his master’s wife liked him and made advances.  Joseph refused the advances and she accused him of attacking her.  Consequently, Joseph was put in prison.  While in prison, he found favor with the warden.  He later met the cup bearer and baker for pharaoh after they were put in prison.  They both had dreams that Joseph interpreted.  Joseph asked the cup bearer to remember him after the release and restoration that was part of the cup bearer’s dream.  Joseph was forgotten until the pharaoh had a dream 2 years later.   The cup bearer advised pharaoh of the man in prison who interpreted his dream and Joseph was brought to the throne room to hear the dream.  In order to shorten the story, Joseph became the became 2^nd in power in Egypt. 

The day came when there was a famine and Joseph’s family came to Egypt to get food.  Joseph saw his brothers bowing before him.  He recognized them but they didn’t recognize him.  If there ever was a time for revenge, it was now.  He was the supreme authority in this case.   Their lives were in his hands.  He could have them executed.  He could refuse to give them food and allow them to starve to death.  Ultimately, he forgave them and they reconciled.  Why was there reconciliation? 

When Jacob, Joseph’s father, returned to his homeland after many year, he was very rich.  However, Jacob swindled his twin brother, Esau, years before and Esau swore vengeance.  Now it was time to pay up.  Jacob couldn’t stay where he was and he couldn’t go home.  In the end, there was reconciliation.  Joseph was a witness to this. 

As parents, our children will remember what we did easier than what we said.  As the pastor said, (I am paraphrasing) Actions speak louder than words and sometimes they will echo into our posterity.

Faith