One Of Those Days

So it is going to be one of those days. You know the days where all the reality that you have been shoving aside in order to keep functioning comes rushing past the dam you have so carefully constructed in your mind and heart? Yeah, one of those days.

Bills have come crashing in, people you thought you could count on fail you, and even the stupid computer won’t let me get through a single blog post without wanting to update despite the fact I have limited time to get this done. Oh, the agony of being me! Excuse me while I go rail against the world for a bit, while I lose sight of all the miraculous things that have happened over the past few weeks and months, while I forget all the monsters slain and moldering because there is a fresh wave on the horizon, and I don’t feel like picking up my sword one more time. Instead, I think I will look for a rock to climb under, if I can find one big enough and one not threatening to topple over and crush me.

On days like this I used to tell people that I should have stayed in bed, but with my luck the ceiling fan would fall on me. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when one day the ceiling fan did, in fact, fall. Thankfully, it happened on day I did get out of bed so the damage was limited to a cloud of dust that covered my room. (And by the way, just to be honest, that “thankfully” was obligatory rather than heartfelt. I was rather irritated about the whole affair.)

I try to have the proper attitude. I really do. I suppose I must succeed on some level because people are always telling me how positive and encouraging I am. You’re welcome, glad to help, and that is wonderful. And I do mean it. I want to be an encourager. I make very intentional and carefully weighed decisions about what I say and what I share because encouraging one another is something I think we should all be actively striving to do. How could I expect less of myself than I would of others? So I put effort into being positive.

But sometimes, if we aren’t careful, that turns into hypocrisy. We become those people whose lives seem to scream, “Look at me! See me! I have it all together, why don’t you?” When the truth of the matter is they are falling apart inside and too scared to admit that today they just aren’t feeling it. Today, they just want the freedom to be down and frustrated with this life.

So today, I am frustrated. I am down. I am worn out and done in. Life is too big to be whooped, and I am the one taking a beating. And that is okay.

Notice that I didn’t say it is fun. I didn’t start doing a hallelujah dance or brush it off as inconsequential. My emotions matter. They have a purpose and value. God did not give them to me and then expect me to deny that they are real. He didn’t tell me that path to holiness is in denial of anything that isn’t all rainbow fuzzies and unicorn farts, and he didn’t say that I am sinful to acknowledging how I feel. And most importantly, he didn’t say that I was being unfaithful in feeling this way.

In an age of pop preachers and carefully coiffed TV evangelists who make their living with the promise of happiness, too many of us have started thinking that feeling anything other than a desire to give a gleaming smile to the world is nothing short of sin. It’s time that we get it straight – our sadness and frustration is not a betrayal of God, it is a demonstration of the fact that their shallow theology just won’t cut it in the real world.

But, but, but, we should rejoice in the Lord always! That is what it says in the Bible! You sow happiness and joy so that you can reap happiness and joy! Change your stinking thinking and your emotions will fall into line – oh, the protests I can hear as I type!

I have but one thing to say to all of that: “Jesus wept.”

Now, tell me this, just how sinful was he being in that moment? Be very careful in how you answer that lest you be guilty of blaspheme.

We could dive deeper and read some of his biting remarks to the Pharisees and his disciples. We could stop and consider the Garden of Gethsemane. We could consider Isaiah 53:3.

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. 

Emotions, even the big bad ugly ones, are not evil. They are not sinful. They just are. You don’t get to legislate them, and you don’t get to turn them off by becoming some spiritual creature who is above such things. Jesus didn’t, why do we think that we should have it better than him? To think such a thing is arrogance, and that is one emotion that the Bible does call sin.

So you own them. You look them in the eye, and see them for what they are. They are real. They are powerful, and they are tools for understanding ourselves and this world we inhabit. They do not define us, they do not get to rule us, but that does not mean they are without value or purpose. Acknowledging how we feel is the first step to authenticity and is an act of integrity and strength. When we gather them all up, take them to Father, and declare the truth of our experience, we are walking in faith and exhibiting hope in the knowledge that he is greater than anything that has hurt our hearts, but we cannot give to Father what we do not own.

For me, today stinks. I don’t want to feel all of this, and I don’t want to deal with all the things that are frustrating me. I just don’t, and that is the truth as plainly as I know how to put it short of a few colorful metaphors. Eventually, I will get past it. I will be able to remember some of the greater truths of my life, and I will find the will to celebrate the good things Father has given me. I will be able to rest in the hope of his promises to me, but not right now. Not in this moment, because it would be a lie and a denial of how he created me. So I will throw my little pity party, I’ll invite Father over and serve him a cup of coffee if he likes, and whine a bit. He will listen, and he won’t patronize or toss Scripture at me. He will acknowledge my pain as valid, and invite me to give it all to him. And in that moment, I will begin to feel the joy of anticipation as I wonder what grand and marvelous thing he will create from my painful honesty.

For He Is Good - Psalm 107

Well, I haven’t totally forgotten our study of Psalms 107. If you are just joining us or if you need to refresh your memory, here are the links to the past three posts: Oh, Give Thanks To The LORD, Digging Deeper Psalm 107, and What's In A Name?

Oh, give thanks to the LORD for He is good, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD says so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy say so. Psalms 107:1, 2

Today, we are going to take a part the phrase “for He is good.” The first thing you want to do when making a serious study of anything is to define your terms, and let’s face it, good is a rather subjective term. Often we tend define “good” as anything we like and bad is anything we don’t like, but when we are studying Bible we need to define our terms according to how they are used within the Bible. We do this by finding other passages of the Bible where the same word is used.

The easiest way to do this with your English translations is to look up the word good in a Strong’s Concordance. If you do not have one, don’t worry it is available for free online, but if you are going to do any amount of serious Bible study I recommend you grab one for your library. When you do this, remember our rule of first mention, and go to the first verse where we find this word. You should be turning to Genesis 1:4.

“And God saw that the light was good.”

Obviously, we are in the creation account. God is going to continue creating the universe and after each creation he is going to see that it is good. From the dry land and the creatures that inhabit to waters and the skies and beasts that will live there, all of it will be seen and all of it will be found good. Then we get to the creation of man, (Genesis 1:26 – 31), and you see that there is no declaration that man is good.

This leads to an interesting question, why is everything else God created good but man isn’t?

Really, stop there and think about the question. Consider the possible answers. When you encounter something like this in the Bible don’t just rush by it and say, “That’s just the way it is.” Remember this book is crafted with the intent and purpose to hold as much truth as possible in very finite space, everything in here was included to teach us something. While you are rolling that around in your mind, let’s skip ahead a millennium or more, or few books as it may be, to the story of Jesus and the
Rich Young Ruler found in Luke 18: 18--30. As always, go look it up and make sure I am not ripping anything out of context because I am only including the key verse here.

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Did you catch that? “No one is God except God alone.” Go on and read the rest, and you find that Jesus is making a point about what is required to follow him. Sure there are some rules like honoring your mother and father, and not bearing false witness against your neighbor, but the it all boils down to one final step – you have to follow him. Nothing in this world must come between you and being in his presence for when you are in his presence you are in the presence of God, (John 1:1-7, John 14).

Jump on over to see one instance of how Paul uses this word good:

And we know that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. Romans 8:28, 29

We could go on with other examples, but for the sake of time, space, and the average adult attention span, let’s just put together the pieces we have collected so far.

God calls his creation good, with the exception of man, but why is it good? To answer that question we have to look at the purpose of creation. God did not need an earth. We did. Everything he placed within this grand creation we inhabit was perfectly designed to house, feed, and shelter us. Everything he called into existence fulfilled its purpose perfectly and without flaw.

Man, on the other hand, is created with potential and that potential lies dormant within each of us until we choose to activate it by become conformed to the image of his son. And we don’t do this by works, we do it through relationship, by coming to know him, and through a process of renewing our minds through the words of truth. The earth was given to us as place to walk through this process and deeper into this relationship, even in its fallen state it still serves this purpose.

God’s greatest desire is to be known by humanity. The wonders that he done so that we might know span throughout history and continue today. Jesus declares that no one is good except God, and when we look at the things that God calls good we see that they are the very things that facilitate our ability to know him.

When I realized this a few years back, I tried to redefine my understanding of good. I came up with this working definition:

Anything that draws me closer to God is good. Anything that drives me from his presence is evil.

This radically changed my perspective of everything. Because when I step back and look at this world, I see how so many of the things we call good are driving people away from God. Money, health, relationships, family, technology, work, and leisure have lured people away from him. At the same time, how many times has disease, heartbreak, and hardship driven us to our knees to seek him? I realized that I have the authority determine what is good and evil in my life by my choice to draw nearer to him or to reject him, and in making that decision, I am also defining my intentions to be good or evil.

The only thing outside of my ability to redefine by this choice is God. For his intent is always that I draw nearer to him, he never changes, and he never waivers in that desire. Everything he has done or will do is for the singular purpose of knowing him. In this he proves that he is always good, and for that reason, giving thanks is the appropriate response in all things.