What a pair of books!
Job tells us that, ultimately, there's no comprehendable answer for the suffering in the world. It asks the question: 'God, why do bad things happen to good people?' and essentially gets the answer: 'Because I am God and you can't hope to understand.'
Ecclesiastes meanwhile tells us that life, in itself, is empty and pointless. A book which tells us that all we can do on this earth, all the friendships we can forge, all the riches we can obtain, even the highest human achievements of kindness and being recognised as good are useless.
Uplifting... right?
I'm going to try and put into words, drawing from my meditations and thoughts on both these books over the past few weeks, exactly why I feel more joyful because of them but it's going to be a struggle because it seems paradoxical and confusing even to me!
I think that sometimes, as Christians, we can see life with God as making sense. It sort of all fits, doesn't it? It all comes together. I have moments of just perfect clarity where I feel like I can see eternity and it's all alright! Do you have them too? But more often than not, life, even with God at our side, is confusing and disturbing. I also have times of just absolute nihilism. I see something and it is just so foreign to my view of the world and my expectations of God that it shakes me to my core, sometimes makes me doubt my own sense of who he is.
My only conclusion is that life with God doesn't make sense. It makes more sense than life without him, that's for sure, but it's still a long way off being total and Job and Ecclesiastes, as books, show us the brick wall of human understanding. Read Job, read God's response to him and ask yourself if you're satisfied with it? I certainly wasn't on a first reading. Surely there must be something missing?! But no, that's it.
Ecclesiastes tells me to enjoy life with God but that a great deal is 'emptiness' or 'vanity'. That means something that we totally fail to comprehend the point or purpose of. A thin facade thrown over chaos.
The first time I really read the truth of God's sovereignty, his complete involvement not just in the world but in my life, my thoughts, my decisions - his sovereign guidance and manipulation of these things - I freaked out a bit, I must say. My mind just screamed in opposition to it and yet, there it was, clearly laid out in the bible; God hardening and softening hearts, God pre-ordaining the decisions of people. It made me feel violated, to be honest.
I prayed about it, long and hard and the more and more I thought about it, the less and less I really THOUGHT about it. It was a truth like a white-hot shard of metal falling into a basin of ice-water. When it first struck the surface of my understanding, it fizzed and hissed, it let off steam and spat but then, after that explosive first encounter, it just cooled and sank to the bottom. I didn't understand it, I went one better and I accepted it. I still can't understand but it's part of my life, part of my thoughts about God and about everything. It underlies my vision of it all, that unfathomable truth.
The same is true for the questions raised by Job and Ecclesiastes. There are no answers here but the books tell us to be satisfied with that. Job is gets a tiny bit of an answer as to why he is suffering from Elihu who tells him it could be training and discipline from God but God gives him the full answer. 'I am God.'
What's our reaction when we reach that brick wall, when we slam our heads into it and look up and just see those words on it? 'I AM GOD'. His very name 'I AM' is the only answer we should ever need.
It's terrifying but it's exhilirating. When I face truths like this I feel like I'm bungee-jumping. My soul at once recoils in protest and, in the same moment, soars in ectasy. I encourage you to take those jumps and those leaps. Go bungee-jumping. Don't shy away because it's hard or because you only want to know about God what you can take in. If you limit yourself to that, you won't understand just how fantastic and wonderful he is.
My prayer for every Christian is that they would take that thin veil of their understanding off God and have their minds blown open by him. When you reach that brick wall, look up in wonder and whisper through the confusion, the frustration, through the pain and suffering, through tears, 'He is God.'
That is real faith and there you will find fullness of peace and abundant joy - free-falling with God.
One day I know I'll get it. When I see him face to face, I will have no questions. I will be completely satisfied. I will look back on every circumstance and every moment and understand. But you can grasp this today through submitting to him in your understanding.
God does not make sense... and it's beautiful.
Sunday 6 September 2009
Wednesday 2 September 2009
Food, clothing and God: True riches
Timothy 6:6-8:
'Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.'
Do you know what Paul describes as the essentials of life? First and foremost, godliness - the quality of being like God. Secondly, food and thirdly, clothing. The second two are obvious. No human can dispense with food permanently except by a miracle. Most humans require clothing for at least some of the year in most parts of the world to survive. How are we like God? We draw near to him and we have a good relationship with him, we do not sin and we seek him in all we do. So, number one on this list of essentials for life is a good relationship with God.
Doesn't God want us to have more than just food and clothing though? Yes, I believe for most he does.
Is this a call to voluntary poverty here from Paul? Not at all.
Is it a call to simple living? Yes.
Is it biblical? Yes... it's in the bible!
What the verse is saying is that we should be able to, realistically, imagine a content life in this world with the bare physical essentials and our relationship with God. Just imagine it. You woke up tomorrow morning and, like Job, you'd lost everything except God, the clothes on your back and a bit of food to get by. Would you say: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.' or would you freak out?!
There is a call in this age, in this time and country of relative prosperity and riches, comfort and peace, to simplify and stand out. You want to know why we're going through a recession right now? God's behind it (he's behind everything, by the way!). Isaiah 45:7 says 'I make peace and CREATE CALAMITY; I, the LORD, do all these things.' So listen to the secret, I believe God's been sharing this with me.
God has sent this time of economic recession so that his chosen people might stand out in their generosity, their sound counsel and their peace and serenity in the midst of 'crisis'. Read that again. It's a rare blessing when we're going through hard times and we can actually see what God is doing by sending them!
Trust God's word that with him, food and clothing, you can be perfectly happy, you can be content. That's a reality that you need to pin at the bottom of all your financial thoughts, all your material possessions. Are you willing to step a level closer to that contentment to bless someone else? Are you willing to give away some of your clothes to help those who are REALLY struggling in this recession? You are blessed by giving and you're blessed by simplifying! You can't actually lose when it comes to charity and kindness! When you set your standard low, when you put it down to food, clothing and that unbreakable love which you have for God and he has for you... you will find that your generosity goes through the roof. You will find that the recession doesn't scare you or make you uneasy because there's still going to be clothes, food and God, however bad it gets! You can grow your own food if needs be! God blessed the earth and told the plants to bring forth fruit and vegetable. Are you getting this? God is ALL YOU NEED.
We are truly rich. We are richer than Bill Gates and Richard Branson combined! We have a relationship with God through the blood of Jesus and that is the most valuable thing in the world. God is calling you to display that wealth, flaunt THOSE riches, Paul said that we shouldn't be ashamed to boast about Jesus! As Christians we should be parading our spiritual riches at this time, people should fall down in wonder at our peace, at our joy when we have nothing which they can see! Paul doesn't say that godliness with contentment is the standard, he says it is 'great gain'. It is something we have to attain, it's something that we're likely to lose, something we must strive after, ask God for, set as our target - we can all be lulled into materialism, into capitalism. Step out and take your inheritance today, show the world what it REALLY needs, what will REALLY solve its problems.
Can you truly say: 'God is enough'? It's a biblical truth that God is all we need, in his grace he often blesses us on top of that - but blessing is made to be passed on and we must never forget that it is blessing ON TOP of need and he has said 'I will never leave or forsake you'. In that, he's saying, you can always be content!
Let's finish by praying a prayer from Proverbs: one of the humblest and most moving prayers I've found in scripture. Let's pray for enough! Let's pray that God will give us just the right amount.
'O God, I beg two favors from You; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?" And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name.'
Proverbs 30:7-9 NLT
'Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.'
Do you know what Paul describes as the essentials of life? First and foremost, godliness - the quality of being like God. Secondly, food and thirdly, clothing. The second two are obvious. No human can dispense with food permanently except by a miracle. Most humans require clothing for at least some of the year in most parts of the world to survive. How are we like God? We draw near to him and we have a good relationship with him, we do not sin and we seek him in all we do. So, number one on this list of essentials for life is a good relationship with God.
Doesn't God want us to have more than just food and clothing though? Yes, I believe for most he does.
Is this a call to voluntary poverty here from Paul? Not at all.
Is it a call to simple living? Yes.
Is it biblical? Yes... it's in the bible!
What the verse is saying is that we should be able to, realistically, imagine a content life in this world with the bare physical essentials and our relationship with God. Just imagine it. You woke up tomorrow morning and, like Job, you'd lost everything except God, the clothes on your back and a bit of food to get by. Would you say: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.' or would you freak out?!
There is a call in this age, in this time and country of relative prosperity and riches, comfort and peace, to simplify and stand out. You want to know why we're going through a recession right now? God's behind it (he's behind everything, by the way!). Isaiah 45:7 says 'I make peace and CREATE CALAMITY; I, the LORD, do all these things.' So listen to the secret, I believe God's been sharing this with me.
God has sent this time of economic recession so that his chosen people might stand out in their generosity, their sound counsel and their peace and serenity in the midst of 'crisis'. Read that again. It's a rare blessing when we're going through hard times and we can actually see what God is doing by sending them!
Trust God's word that with him, food and clothing, you can be perfectly happy, you can be content. That's a reality that you need to pin at the bottom of all your financial thoughts, all your material possessions. Are you willing to step a level closer to that contentment to bless someone else? Are you willing to give away some of your clothes to help those who are REALLY struggling in this recession? You are blessed by giving and you're blessed by simplifying! You can't actually lose when it comes to charity and kindness! When you set your standard low, when you put it down to food, clothing and that unbreakable love which you have for God and he has for you... you will find that your generosity goes through the roof. You will find that the recession doesn't scare you or make you uneasy because there's still going to be clothes, food and God, however bad it gets! You can grow your own food if needs be! God blessed the earth and told the plants to bring forth fruit and vegetable. Are you getting this? God is ALL YOU NEED.
We are truly rich. We are richer than Bill Gates and Richard Branson combined! We have a relationship with God through the blood of Jesus and that is the most valuable thing in the world. God is calling you to display that wealth, flaunt THOSE riches, Paul said that we shouldn't be ashamed to boast about Jesus! As Christians we should be parading our spiritual riches at this time, people should fall down in wonder at our peace, at our joy when we have nothing which they can see! Paul doesn't say that godliness with contentment is the standard, he says it is 'great gain'. It is something we have to attain, it's something that we're likely to lose, something we must strive after, ask God for, set as our target - we can all be lulled into materialism, into capitalism. Step out and take your inheritance today, show the world what it REALLY needs, what will REALLY solve its problems.
Can you truly say: 'God is enough'? It's a biblical truth that God is all we need, in his grace he often blesses us on top of that - but blessing is made to be passed on and we must never forget that it is blessing ON TOP of need and he has said 'I will never leave or forsake you'. In that, he's saying, you can always be content!
Let's finish by praying a prayer from Proverbs: one of the humblest and most moving prayers I've found in scripture. Let's pray for enough! Let's pray that God will give us just the right amount.
'O God, I beg two favors from You; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?" And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name.'
Proverbs 30:7-9 NLT
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