He Wants to Raise You From the Dead
When I was a teenager, I frequently asked God, “How could you let this happen to me?” Since then, I’ve learned a few things, like how to vary my diction. “God, what’s going on here?” “How come nothing’s working out right now?” “Why does my life suck so much?”
To which God replies, “Because I’ll do whatever it takes to make you grow.”
(Ah-ha moment: Hey! Maybe that’s why I have all these problems!)
I keep thinking that if we could just get this one truth, life would resolve itself into a beautiful mosaic and we would stop asking stupid questions like If God’s so smart, then why did he give me this ugly car?
(Hey! I know the answer! It’s because the world crumbled in the Garden and now God has to hurt us in order to heal us.)
Precisely, my self-referential friend. God has been placed in the unenviable position of carrying out open heart/reconstructive/brain/cosmetic-surgery on the entire world, and the world doesn’t know what’s going on. Also, the surgery is going on without anesthetic. No wonder we sometimes think God hates us and is trying to kill us.
In reality, he’s just trying to raise us from the dead.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
God Doesn't Hate You
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4 comments:
I do indeed take (and agree with) your larger point, but:
. . . and we would stop asking stupid questions like If God’s so smart, then why did he give me this ugly car?
This may sound like splitting hairs, but: are you saying that it's the question itself that's stupid, or that, because of Original Sin, we find ourselves in dilemmas such as this one--that, if not for the Fall, we'd all be driving cars as beautiful as Jaguars? It's hard to know, based on the response that follows. Without the response, I agree wholeheartedly that the question itself is foolish; with the response, though, I frankly think God has more effective ways of "hurting us" than the road to Perdition embodied by, say, the purchase of an Azteca.
There is also a third possibility: that I'm taking this a bit more seriously than you intended.
Precisely, my self-referential friend
I like that, it reminds me of Luther's "SILENCE, IMAGINARY INTERLOCUTOR!" :D
Good to see the Johns are weighing in. :)
John B., you're right, as an example of the effects of original sin, driving an ugly car is absurd. What I was doing more was showing the silliness that we can tend toward, as we take ourselves far too seriously. But there are devastating issues that give us chances to ask questions about God's intent with more justification (e.g., Job).
Maybe I shouldn't have flipped the switch from serious confusion to trivial irritation without warning.
John (without a B.), thanks for the Luther comparison. I love getting mentioned in the same breath with great theologians who have managed to transcend several centuries and the grave in order to blog regularly.
Man, do I feel that these days.
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