I wrote some time ago about the unpredictable God, wrestling with the concept of a God who doesn’t work according to transactions, who decides not to answer prayer, who allows and creates disaster, entirely messing up my own comfort. Some better reflections on the theme come from two places:
First, iMonk writes about hitting a wall, and abandoning belief in the God who guarantees anything other than the steadfastness of Christ.
Then, Mark (aka “grub”), reflecting on that essay, writes the following at the BHT:
As stopped relying on Him to fix my problems, keep my family safe, and make all my infertile friends have babies, I had a frightening realization: I had always relied on God to produce results, now I was going to have to trust not in His results, but in the process of Him working in me. That’s harder, much harder. Instead of my friends becoming fertile, I was going to have to learn to be a comforting friend. Instead of my family having a ‘hedge of protection’ around them, I was going to have to grapple with death and violence.
Thanks, Mark…I was trying really hard to keep the conversation on important things like gardening, and you have to go and be all spiritually challenging…
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Perhaps the “American God” father of the “American Jesus” who gives us the “American Gospel” is slowly but surely being seen for what he (or should I say it) really is – an idol (or wood, stone, or big house or fancy car or whatever). A poor substitution for the real thing.