Different lessons
I awoke this morning considering my fear of losing, even in things that don't matter, realizing that this was put in place in me maybe 55 years ago because if God isn't going to take care of me, then I have to win. This is really the general case of all the nations saying, "What will eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?" but I didn't realize that until now.
Of course winning is sometimes necessary, especially if it can be done without making others lose any more than necessary, just as we do need food, drink, and covering. It gets ugly when we line up our food and drink, our petroleum under the sand of others, and power over other people because we think God won't take care of us - by dropping white phosphorus and depleted uranium on little kids and wedding parties in far away places. But in general, it gets pretty ugly with any of us when we have to win in case God won't take care of us. Indeed, all these specific cravings are special cases of having to win, however unjustly, because we're saying in our hearts that God won't care for us. Lamech the 6th from Cain had this problem (Genesis 4:19-24). I can see God not subsidizing that death in my life, so I'm glad to be getting this argument worked out with him today. Such faith toward the truth is in fact what real winning is.
We had a situation with lost car keys this morning. So why was God not asked for some help, as wrath and frustration was increasing? Well, God doesn't care about me and won't help me was the answer. So there was a big issue behind this tiny torment of the car keys. It is just as the proverb says, "A man's folly subverts his way, and then his heart rages against the Lord" (Proverbs 19:3).
The thing about this proverb is that it is simply a truth, not even a moral judgment. Our folly, and we all have some, always causes us to rage against God when that folly issues in trouble. An awful lot of rage comes God's way all the time, and for him it's really in one ear and out the other, like the three-year-old shouting "I hate you!" Even if we're in Christ, this sewage will keep frothing up all the time as a matter of course, and there's no condemnation for us in it, so long as we get around to telling the truth. It's expected, so there's no problem once we arrive at the correct diagnosis, that our folly got us in this mess and that God is not to blame, although God will have to be the one to dig us out of it.
Of course winning is sometimes necessary, especially if it can be done without making others lose any more than necessary, just as we do need food, drink, and covering. It gets ugly when we line up our food and drink, our petroleum under the sand of others, and power over other people because we think God won't take care of us - by dropping white phosphorus and depleted uranium on little kids and wedding parties in far away places. But in general, it gets pretty ugly with any of us when we have to win in case God won't take care of us. Indeed, all these specific cravings are special cases of having to win, however unjustly, because we're saying in our hearts that God won't care for us. Lamech the 6th from Cain had this problem (Genesis 4:19-24). I can see God not subsidizing that death in my life, so I'm glad to be getting this argument worked out with him today. Such faith toward the truth is in fact what real winning is.
We had a situation with lost car keys this morning. So why was God not asked for some help, as wrath and frustration was increasing? Well, God doesn't care about me and won't help me was the answer. So there was a big issue behind this tiny torment of the car keys. It is just as the proverb says, "A man's folly subverts his way, and then his heart rages against the Lord" (Proverbs 19:3).
The thing about this proverb is that it is simply a truth, not even a moral judgment. Our folly, and we all have some, always causes us to rage against God when that folly issues in trouble. An awful lot of rage comes God's way all the time, and for him it's really in one ear and out the other, like the three-year-old shouting "I hate you!" Even if we're in Christ, this sewage will keep frothing up all the time as a matter of course, and there's no condemnation for us in it, so long as we get around to telling the truth. It's expected, so there's no problem once we arrive at the correct diagnosis, that our folly got us in this mess and that God is not to blame, although God will have to be the one to dig us out of it.
posted by Peter Attwood at 9/20/2009 03:29:00 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting thoughts on trusting in God to take care of us to ward off frustration and rage.
I recently read about a precious little baby girl who died in her crib due to blood loss from repeated rat bites
(http://www.wdsu.com/news/20145677/detail.html).
The Bible states that our Father cares for us much more than he cares for the sparrow so we have no need to fear ... or conclude as you address in this post that "God doesn't care about me and won't help me".
That is a comforting proposition indeed, but how to reconcile what happened to this dear infant with the idea that God is simultaneously caring for us so much so don't worry about winning or not dying tragic deaths? In other words, in what context does he care for us so much that we should have our fears alleviated of being bit to death in our cribs?
If helpless, innocent babies have no assurance against horrific deaths in the safety of their own beds, how do we exercise faith that God will intervene in trivial matters such as your car keys? Or less trivial matters such as depleted uranium munitions landing on kids in distant countries?
You have a serious point - addressed for instance in Psalm 44, in which we read, "For your sake we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for food."
It goes back to Abel, who if God was his faithful keeper, then how come he's dead, as Cain sneered to God. Is God still keeping us even if we are abandoned to our enemies, like the babies slaughtered in Bethlehem on account of Jesus?
The kind of facile assurances you hear at the funerals of the wicked won't do. There's a lot on this matter in the Bible, and I'm still working on it; with less unbelief I'll be better off.
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