Being An Instrument: 04 March 2001
I should watch the sun come up more often. One would think that it would lose it's mystery, since it happens every day, but it's still beautiful and awe inspiring. It always makes me think of God. Joseph Girzone says that sometimes we cannot see God, not because he is far away, but because of his nearness. When God chooses to actively love someone not by painting it in the sky but by using my voice and my arms and my tears... I may miss it though I am the instrument in His hands. So I plead with Him to intervene and to be the Comforter like he promised, but he has, through me, and I am blinded by my arrogance and ignorance.
This week has been one of realizing, all over again, that God loves me and that He is full of grace. Since I see the modern church and its representation of God, I forget the simple love of an Israeli carpenter. It seems that God is either represented as a benevolent Genie (oh bless me, bless ME Jesus) or as a Legalist who loves his Almighty Rules more than the people who struggle to follow them. But Jesus wasn't either of those things. He just loved. He hung out with lepers and whores and drunks and ugly people. He loved them not because they had perfect lives but because they were God's creations and beautiful in their own right. Every one seems to have heard John 3:16, but we have forgotten John 3:17. "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." (NIV) Jesus did not condemn the adulterous woman when he had the chance to stone her, but showed her the infinite love and mercy of God. He taught that God is not picky about his companions. He taught that God is not so arrogant that he would use the hands of a priest or Pharisee, but not those of a drug dealer or a Samaritan.
I needed to hear that this week because my week has not been great. I've always thought that God can look at me and see all my potential, whether for good or bad. While that is true, it is not true that he loves me just for the good potential that I have. If I were to go and fulfill my entire negative potential, he would still love me intensely. Take Marilyn Manson for example: he went to a Christian school until Grade 11. He know the Bible inside out and backwards. He also creates some of the most destructive music in our time and has an incredible negative influence on today's youth culture. Neither of these aspects of his life, good or bad, have anything to do with how he would be received by Jesus. He would be treated with the same dignity and compassion as Billy Graham.
I've thrown out so much excess theology in the last year. I've been sorting through what is flaky and what is solid truth. Par consequence, my theology is now very simple and quite concise. I think that's a strength. While we are called to know that the Lord is God, not just believe or think, but know, we are also called to see how simple and vast is the love of God. The Scriptures contain many complex mysteries. There is much to discover. But you don't need a 4.0 GPA to know God, you just need eyes that are open and a heart that is humble.
It amazes me when I see how Jesus talked about God. So many people today say, "I think God is like this," or, "My perception of God is that," always leaving room for doubt or contradicting opinions. Jesus never did that, which should have sounded arrogant, but somehow doesn't. He always said things like, "My Father does this, " or, "God has heard you," or, "God has forgiven you," without any doubt. He spoke like someone who could see God with their eyes rather than his mind, and I wonder if that level of recognition of God's movements is open to us all. I mean, Jesus did have the advantage of being God, but do the Scriptures not say we are to know God and that his sheep recognize his voice?
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