With the assitance of a book called The Openness of God (a book that makes Fuller, for the conservative, too liberal), I have been reflecting on the potential unhealthy overlap that followers of Jesus have constructed regarding faith, peace, and the sovereignty of God. In my personal experience, when life has brought forth difficult tangents, I have often rested on the foundation of the sovereignty of God. I have also seen many people in the communities that have directly surrounded me take this same foundation as their "deepest level of peace". The question that continues to bombard my head is... What if sovereignty isn't the trump card called to bring the deepest levels of peace and health to humanity? What if finding our deepest levels of centeredness in the sovereignty of God actually leads to a shallow level of peace, or an "uncenteredness"? Where does Jesus fit into these questions? I don't know the answers, but if these questions have any truth to them, then a lot of unhealthiness that I have seen over the past years within myself and people who wear the sovereignty of God marker on their forhead sure makes a lot of sense.
Mini Putt
7 comments:
As in I don't understand _______ but God is all powerful so I am okay? Can you expound, this resonates with something in me but I would like you to say more.
I feel like I have looked into the eyes of many people who are hurt, and whom are dealing with their hurt by pounding the fact that God is in control in their mind. This "Christian trump card" that so many of us carry in our back pocket seems to hinder people from authentically dealing with the difficult realities of life. I feel like deeper levels of peace, centeredness, health can come by dealing with trials in better (and more Biblical) ways.
Having written a lengthy response and inadvertently deleting it I am a bit unsure that my comment is required. However I do believe you are asking questions that are very important as you test and strenthen your own faith.
The sovereignty of God can NOT be a crutch on which any wounded warrior leans. It must be the reality that sustains us in all that comes our way, and strengthens us to meet pain and grief in a peaceful spirit allowing us to travel through the difficulty with clerity of thought and an assurance of growth and joy at the end of the "trial".
Jesus did NOT refuse or deny pain or sorrow. He did bring into human experience a revelation of the reality of God alive in our lives.
Would that any of us were able to know with such assurance the truths our Lord taught. Would that we could be free of the language barriers that make our grasp of Gods will so complex.
You ask questions that will be so significant as you prepare to serve in our Lord's kingdom. Those questions are a straight path to growth. May our God bless you with answers. GM
I liked this post. You are hitting on a good point, the sovereignty of God that can often be used as a shallow sentimentality when we deal with those who are hurting or questioning. We often want to say that 'God is in control' instead of actually suffering on behalf and really taking the time to enter into someone's pain. What if He is in control, and He also desperately needs us to be there at the same time?
Great post! I have thought these thoughts the past few months. It gets tiring hearing people say that it will be okay because it is God's plan. It seems like it has been a crutch for often instead of dealing with the issues at hand. Thanks for the thoughts.
Warnes... how goes it? Good thoughts in this post! I recently reread a little book that I had to read in seminary called "The Will of God" by Leslie Weatherhead. GREAT little book that can be read in one sitting (maybe two hours)--I recommend it if you have time! I won't be able to recount the whole thing here, but the basic gist is that, while everything that happens in life DOES (somehow, mysteriously) fall under God's "ultimate" will (i.e., to bring about shalom, a full restoration of his original creation), NOT everything falls under his "intentional" will (the things that happen as God has intended them to happen), because of sin. And some things that may not be part of his intentional will can still be part of his "circumstantial" will, that is, his will that is able to flex and bend in response to our human choices, fallen as it is. Weatherhead thinks that the cross of Christ was not actually a part of God's intentional will, but that it was part of his circumstantial will as he saw the predicament that we humans had gotten ourselves into and recognized our need for a "way out." And, of course, the cross was part of God's ultimate will, because it allows for reconciliation between us/creation and God... I know I'm not explaining this well here b/c I'm trying to be brief, so it's better if you can read the book and then we can get together for coffee next time you're in MI or we're in CA! :) Take care, Warnes! And keep asking good questions...
I think that Evangelicals, especially those from Western Michigan are very "over-protective" of neo-responses to the concept of God. I throughly enjoyed this book and even have read others (Trinity and Process, g.boyd; most moved over, c.pinnok; the god who risks** my favorite**, j. sanders). we Christians (especially progressive Evangelicals (or if you prefer, "neo") have a lot to learn from these fearless leaders....
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