God is in control?

I haven’t written in a while, but I’ve been mulling this one over for some time.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “God is in control.” When I hear it, I cringe. Here’s what I believe: God does orchestrate events, but he never violates man’s will. He created us with the awesome and terrible ability to make up our own minds, to choose the way that seems best to us. We all know how well that turned for the first couple. God’s will was for Adam and Eve to live in perfect obedience and intimacy with him. But they didn’t. And he let them.

He’s in control of the universe… but he values my (mostly foolish) decisions by not overriding them, and holds me responsible to live with the natural consequences of my choices.

I envision him like an orchestra conductor, directing each musician to fulfill his or her part. But it’s up to each person holding their instrument to play the proper note at the proper time.  The conductor can’t make anyone play.

I hated the popular Christian song a few years ago called “Jesus take the wheel.”  Sorry, but Jesus won’t run your life for you while you nap in the back seat. He doesn’t work that way.  He wants servants for his father’s house who can be entrusted with the estate. He wants to give you a portion of his wealth so you can invest and return more. He wants active participants in the kingdom work, not shrugged shoulders and the defeated call for Jesus to take over.

I struggle with this concept of control in the common everyday decisions I make. For example, it is up to me to decide how much to give to charity. God does not automatically debit my bank account. It’s my responsibility as his servant to find out what my master wishes, then do my best to carry that out.

I’m not saying that God doesn’t work in and through us. He doesn’t control me, but he works in and through me when I obey him, when I let him,  when I bow my will to his.  Unfortunately this doesn’t just happen. It takes active decision-making on my part.  I must choose moment by moment to listen to him, to trust him, to physically do what I hear him saying.

On the other hand, I’m not saying that my will supercedes God’s. He will work his plan for the universe out whether I play along or not. I cannot stop God from his grand work. But I sure can stop his work in me.

Even so, and thank God, he can redeem my mistakes. He turns my failures around. He conducts the grand orchestra in such a way to recover from my errors. He works all things together for the good of those who love him, and are called according to his purpose.

it is finished

Finally finished The Divine Conspiracy.  Hopefully I can live out what I read.

The final few chapters are devoted to developing a discipleship plan.  For those with the responsibility of making disciples, he lays out a “curriculum for Christlikeness.”

The end is Willard’s vision of eternal life.  Importantly, he discusses death and our common misperceptions of it.  Once cleared, he uses scripture to illuminate the eternal world and our role in it.  This is critical to the committment to be a disciple, because you must know what you’re working toward.

In case you were wondering, the divine conspiracy (if I can sum up this weighty work in one paragraph) is that the Being greater than the universe slipped into our midst, becoming one of us.  This decision changed all of humanity for all time.  It can change me – right now.

the divine conspiracy, part 2

In case you didn’t see it, I posted earlier about trying to read The Divine Conspiracy for the third time.  I’m over half way through now, and loving it (third time’s a charm I guess).

His scholarly style does take some getting used to.  The more I read the better I understand his approach to mapping out his subject matter.  I’m also getting better at reading his unique sentence constructions.  Though it’s getting easier, I can’t read too much at a time because it requires digestion.  Here’s a snippet:

The eternal life that begins with confidence in Jesus is a life in his present kingdom, now on earth and available to all. So the message of and about him is specifically a gospel for our life now, not just for dying. It is about living now as his apprentice in kingdom living, not just as a consumer of his merits. Our future, however far we look, is a natural extension of the faith by which we live now and the life in which we now participate.

But besides the mechanics of reading comprehension, how’s the book itself?  Very insightful,  thoughtful and intellectually inspiring.  I love his approach of starting with the assertion that Jesus was (is) the most intelligent person ever, so we should take seriously his teaching.  So often when we read Jesus’ words we skim over them out of familiarity, without really studying his teaching for application to our everyday life.  Willard methodically breaks down the central teachings of Jesus into readily applicable chunks of kingdom truth.

the divine conspiracy

Okay, so this is at least the third time I’ve started reading this book: The Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard.  It’s deep stuff, and I don’t know if I’m ready yet (still).  But I’ll try…

pray like Jesus

On the recommendation of a friend, I found this sermon called “The Gethsemane Prayer,” part of a series on praying like Jesus at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Wow.  Meaty stuff.  Be prepared for a serious 74 minutes.

practicing the presence of God

While reading The Purpose Driven Life, I was intrigued by the mention of a 17th century Frenchman named Brother Lawrence.  He was a layman who served as a cook and shoe repairman in a French monastery.  He developed a lifestyle of living in God’s presence, every moment of every day.  He mentored many people later in life, one of whom compiled several letters and short essays of Brother Lawrence’s into a small book called The Practice of the Presence of God.

I picked up a copy of the book and am reading it now.  I like the straightforward, clear yet profound exhortations.  Lawrence explains how he made a habit of speaking to God constantly, even in the middle of everyday tasks.  I was a little skeptical at first because I believe that God sometimes chooses to hide himself from us (Ps 10:1, 13:1, 89:46).  But Lawrence acknowledges this truth, explaining that God uses these spells to strengthen our faith in him.  God asks us to believe in him even when we can’t see his hand working in our situation, to continue to trust his goodness even when we can’t hear his voice.  Lawrence encourages us to keep talking to God, to keep praising him, and to keep asking for grace to live a life that pleases him.

Here are some excerpts:

If we knew how much He loves us, we would always be ready to face life, both its pleasures and its troubles.  You know, the difficulties in life do not have to be unbearable.  It is the way we look at them – through faith or unbelief. We must be convinced that our Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good.

…

The first way in which the soul is united with God is through salvation, solely by his grace.  This is followed by a period in which a saved soul comes to know God through a series of experiences, some of which bring it into closer union with Him, and some take it further away.  The soul learns which activities bring God’s presence nearer.  It remains in His presence by practicing those activities.

I think I may read this book several times… maybe once a year.

what’s your business?

An idea gleaned from Rich Dad, Poor Dad: what’s your business?  Not where do you work – you may have a regular 9-5 working for someone else – but what’s your business?  Let’s apply that to spiritual life.

Q. What does God do all day (for all eternity)?

A. He works.

So what am I doing with my days?  Jesus at 12 years old asked, “didn’t you know I must be about my father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)  I should be working, just like Jesus, at the Father’s business.  His business should be my business.

What’s God’s business?  It’s His creation, including the lives of every person.  He made it all, owns it all, and loves it all.  Sure there are times we tick Him off, but that’s true of every artist and his artwork, every mother and her child.

What does He do in and for us?  He guides us into maturity.  He trains and equips us.  He gives us work to accomplish (“feed my sheep”).  We can do these things too: we can lead others into maturity (as Paul did), we can train and equip others, we can give others work to accomplish (see James).  In this way we become stakeholders in the kingdom, each of us putting our blood, sweat and tears as an investment into eternal things.

The Shack

I just finished The Shack last Friday.  On Saturday I saw the author, William P. Young, speak at my local library (we live in the same town).  Both the book and the author were very impressive.

I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t read it, but you should!  The author uses a story to convey his understanding of God, and it’s a powerful, incisive understanding.  His theology is sound, yet challenging and liberating to modern thought.

The story itself is good for a first time effort.  I can’t help comparing to C.S. Lewis… Young’s story telling is not on par with Lewis, but his ability to convey deep truth is, and that’s saying a lot.

I enjoyed the author’s talk very much.  He gave the history of the book, the writing process, how it got published, a bit about his personal life, etc.  At the end of the talk, Young said he’d sign everyone’s book, but he hates selling them, so we should buy them from Costco or other stores if we wanted to save money.  After signing each book, he gave each person who came a hug!

The Word

The opening of John’s gospel is curious.  Why does John call Jesus “the Word?”

John wrote his tale to convey to contemporary Hebrews and Greeks who Jesus was, and what he did.  In the Greek system of thought, “the Word” was used of the system of reason that governs the universe.  In Hebrew theology, “the Word” was sometimes used as a placeholder for God’s name (Jahweh), since Jews never pronounced or wrote his name.

So John is hinting that what he’s about to tell us has to do with the one who governs the universe.  Jesus is that which created and sustains all things.  He’s also the same God as Jahweh, the God of the Jews.  These postulations had to be considered both radical and heretical.

But there’s something else about “the Word.”  The Greek word here is logos.  Nothing remarkable about that, but why would you call a person a word?  Words convey meaning.  They carry communication from one party to another.  Maybe John is telling us that Jesus “became flesh” to convey to us a message.  Skip to chapter 17 and read the end of Jesus’ prayer that John records for us:

Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do…

So Jesus, the Word, shows us God – the creator and sustainer of the universe, the same Jahweh worshipped by the Jews for thousands of years – who he is and what he does.  Wow!

loss and the formation of character

Is it just me, or do you grow when you lose something or someone important to you?

It seems like the more I have: money, clothes, food, toys, etc., the more stagnant my spiritual state.  It’s then that I almost want God to take something away from me so I can see (again) that it’s only him that makes me happy.  It’s only in him that I find real joy, real peace, real fulfillment.  The stuff just gets in the way, deceiving me with its shiny newness or that temporary high of satiety.

I don’t understand how rich people can truly put their trust in God.  Maybe that’s because I’m not mature enough to handle wealth with the balance and discipline it requires to not let money rule me.  Jesus did say it is pretty hard for the rich to enter his kingdom.

I’m working hard to keep stuff from dominating my life.  It’s not easy!  But I’d rather keep my possessions minimal and my focus right than allow my heart to turn away from him, because that’s when he might take away something (or God forbid, someone) to get my attention.

People often ask questions like “why do bad things happen to good people?” and “how could a good God allow such tragedy?”  I think part (not all) of the answer is in what he wants to happen in us.  When he allows you to suffer, he’s allowing that pain to form your character.  You have two choices when faced with the pain of loss: you can be bitter and harden your heart to him, or you can run to him and cry on his shoulder.  You can either move farther from him or closer to him.  He never takes away your free will, but he allows painful events to give you the opportunity to grow.

Go ahead, snuggle up.