Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Here’s what I understood: The good, the wise, and all that they do are in God’s hands—but, day by day, whether it’s love or hate they’re dealing with, they don’t know. (Ecclesiastes 9:1, The Message Bible)

                 “If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you something to cry about.”  That was one of my mother’s favourite sayings when I was small. It made no sense then, nor does it now.

                But I think there are a lot of senseless, thoughtless, deceitful, trite sayings we use without giving them a second thought.

                “This is going to hurt me more than it will you.”  It is still going to hurt and maybe a lot more than you think or know.

“Don’t take this personally.” But your criticism is deeply personal and hurtful.

“No offence but…” But you went ahead and said it anyway and it indeed offended me.

“In my humble opinion.”  An oxymoron if there ever was one.

“Love the sinner and hate the sin.” It implies judgment, condemnation hiding under a very thin veneer of love. Very smug and self-righteous – in my humble opinion.

“It’s God’s will.”

This is usually said when someone dies but can and is used to attempt to bring some sort of comfort or solace to any unfortunate circumstance. I don’t find these words very comforting at all. Who can blame someone for thinking that in light of these words, what has that individual  done to tick off God that it is God’s will for him or her  to hurt, suffer and feel sorrow?

For one thing, it is presumptuous for any one of us to think we know God’s will with absolute certainty. I think that is what the Ecclesiastes’ writer is trying to get at – looking at the world and realizing that the order of things doesn’t always make sense. Good things happen to bad people; bad things happen to good people. It is difficult to discern God’s will in the midst of humanity colliding with life and what happens in the world.

I have read that some Christians are saying that the Russian evasion of Ukraine is God’s will. So, God is okay with the killing of civilians, especially children? This war is meeting some unknowable agenda that God is allowing to happen?

This means that God is also the author of all that is wrong in the world or, at least, allows and permits the chaos, the violence, the hatred, the inhumanity that taints human living.

But I have a huge problem with that assessment.

God’s will is wrapped up in total Love. That may not solve human suffering or answer the question why there is such suffering.  But there is something deeply and profoundly reassuring that I don’t need to run away from a willful God but rather lean into God’s Love and Mercy. God’s will is to love you and me and therefore God’s will is that we abide in that Love and live by that Love and act in that Love.

Perhaps, some people see God’s will as some sort of rigid, inflexible determination of God’s plan. But I would argue that God’s will is more interactive, more flexible, more situational when it comes to God's relationship with us. Yes, God wants us to love him, be obedient to his commandments, love others, and do good works or bear good fruit. We know that much  about God’s will and yet we often still fail and life gets complicated and chaotic and harm comes our way.

But God’s will intersects with our lives in those times and desires to pull us through, to give us strength and hope, to invite us to lean into God’s promises and assurances and not give up.

“Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” (Hebrews 10:36, NLT)

Dale