There was a time when I was obsessed with learning how to walk by the Spirit. If I felt a compulsion or heard a voice in my head, I would analyze it, trying to determine if it was God, a lack of sleep, guilt, or something genetic at work. I didn't trust myself. And I didn't trust anyone else. This was my personal challenge: If the Holy Spirit was removed from my life, how much of it would have to change. Without Him, I could still read my Bible. I could still pray. I could still have fellowship with believers. I could still listen to pastors and teachers. I could still serve my community. I realized that there was very little, if anything, in my Christianity that required an indwelling Holy Spirit. Apparently, the deposit Jesus left that would "lead me into all truth" was fairly inconsequential. As I continued to explore my need for God's Spirit, I came across certain barriers in my quest for "absolute truth," only one of which I will mention here. Perhaps you can think of others. I call it "God Talk." I saw it a lot in college: "I was so tired last night, but I knew I had to finish my paper, so I prayed and just kept typing and the Lord got me through it." But what about the millions of other students that accomplished the same thing with a lot of coffee and face slapping? Parents? "I needed sleep, but the kids were sniffing and calling for me all night so I gave them a little Benadryl and, thank God, they slept through the night." But John . . . we are encouraged to "acknowledge Him in all our ways," right? We should be giving glory to Him for everything that happens in our lives, for better or for worse. But what if it isn't Him? I guess we could argue that everything is from Him because we are His children and He loves us, and He will never leave us. If we hold that perspective, we will probably find ourselves saying things like "God is trying to teach me patience" when we are feeling impatient, or "God is good," once we've had our morning coffee, or "God is testing me" when things are not going well. Sometimes that might be true. Other times not. Does it matter to you? The Greeks attributed every natural event to the activity of their gods. But those gods were not real. Our God is. How often do we treat God like one of these Greek gods? Does it give us a sense of security to attribute everything in our lives to Him? Or should we? What if God is not responsible for keeping you awake while you write your paper? What if God did not put your children to sleep because he knew you needed it? What if God did not open up that parking spot at the last second because he knew you were in a time crunch? Maybe it just opened up like it did for that Buddhist in the car in front of you, or that Agnostic in the red Jeep. How do you feel about "God Talk"?
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- John Barnts
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3 comments:
This is an issue I have wrestled with for a long time. It's not very comfortable for church people to talk about. I actually just addressed this from a different angle on my blog: http://elahvalley.blogspot.com
i find it's a struggle over individualism and sovereignty. as individuals, we want to know that God cares for me. So we want to acknowledge him from that angle, and take some solace in knowing that "he's looking out for me." However, I feel like we limit God so much. We look at circumstances as God's favor/disappointment. Instead, we should be looking at God as developing our character and his kingdom. It's just so much bigger than me. As an old comedian quipped a few years ago, "I love those people that when walking through the house late at night with the lights off, they stub their toe on a chair and ask, 'What is God trying to tell me?' He's telling you to turn a light on, stupid!"
I think we need to under-spiritualize our circumstances (parking spots, sleeping through sick kids, etc.) and over-spiritualize God's kingdom work (drawing together people that have nothing in common but his grace, repentance, forgiveness, loving others).
i think you make a great point Howie! if we weren't so focused on ourselves, then the question of the stubbed toe or parking space would seem to trivial to even ask! But we can know that God who is big and good is up to big and good things in the world, things He invites us to be a part of. I'd rather have my mind on that than my pink toe anyway. :)
The comical figures of the angel and the devil sitting on the shoulder of the figure in the cartoon is an appropriate analogy to this question.
Our minds are going on 24 hours of the day and we wonder if what we ever hear is anything God is saying to us. It is very difficult to hear the wee small voice of God over all our clamoring. Our egos, which I compare to the little devil on our shoulder, is looking out for number one. He wants the preferred parking spot, he doesn't want to be bothered with the unhappy things of the world, etc. Knowing what voice you hear in your head has all to do with the content of what is being said. God is Love and thus God is Joy. Does what you hear contain Love and Joy for more that just yourself? God does not pick and choose where His Love goes and His Favor extends to all His creations simultaneously and continuously.
Thinking God is helping us and not another is our attempt to keep God to ourselves. This happens when we pray to God to help us make a decision, or to help us get that raise, or to get that preferred parking space. We seek specialness over others. We seek God's favor over others. This can be looked at as an attempt to separate ourselves from our brothers, which is tantamount to trying to separate God from our brothers.
As long as we maintain the belief that God can help us and choose not to help another is just another one of our feeble attempts make God in our image.
If a thought does not contain Love or Joy, it is not of God.
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