Thursday, June 8, 2006

Honesty With God

I have a few friends that are always, always, smiling. Now I have a pretty positive disposition, but I can't even begin to understand these people! I think that if they were told that their right arm and leg had to be amputated they would smile and say "Praise God". Now I'm all for praising God and all that, but if I were told something like that, my response would be one of anger, confusion, and disappointment. I wouldn't just be angry with the situation, either; I would definitely direct that anger at God. I would be livid! How unfair! Now, I'm certainly not trying to criticize people who may have a better outlook on life, maybe the first thing they think of is their opportunities for ministry which have just opened up for them due to their lack of appendages. If that's the case, that's amazing and they are much more spiritually minded than me.
However, I would like to caution those of us (yes me too) that have a tendency from time to time to think that we need to put on a happy face to be Christians. I suppose the whole idea that if you follow God, you will be blessed (and vice versa) originated early on. We can see evidence of this in the book of Proverbs, as much of it's theology is based upon this worldview. For example, Proverbs 11:5 says "The righteousness of the blameless keeps their ways straight, but the wicked fall by their own wickedness" (NRSV).
So it's easy to see where this theory that God blesses those who follow him came from, but there are other things we should consider. The book of Job chronicles a short segment of one man's life who, for some reason unbeknownst to him, is suddenly struck with affliction and disease. Job hasn't committed any sin and he believes that he is being treated unfairly. Job accuses God of acting un-Godly and insists on taking God to court. God appears to Job and tells him in no uncertain terms that God's ways are unknowable and that he is God no matter what he does. In the New Testament Jesus deals with some of his contemporaries who believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. In John 9:3 Jesus says "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him" (NASB).
Sometimes life stinks, it's tough and it's not fair. It's not a sin to express anger or disappointment with the circumstances in your life. The key is that you remember that God is a powerful God who has done many things for each of us in the past, and that he is faithful.

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