Let me ask a follow up question.
If God does not always get what he wants, why do we so often attribute the good and/or bad things that happen in our lives (or someone else's) to God not wanting or wanting it to happen? I hear all the time, "I guess that just wasn't what God had in mind," or, "Maybe that just wasn't in God's plan." Do we really mean, "Since things didn't work out the way that I thought they should, I will say it was God's idea" - so that we will feel better about the circumstance?
Is saying, "God didn't want such and such to happen," our way of not throwing a temper tantrum?Or is it possible that God really didn't want things to turn out the way that they did, or that God wanted things to turn out how we did not want?
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Tell me your thoughts. Leave a Comment.
~JK
4 comments:
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Great point, Josh. You and I are chewing on the same sort of things right now, aren't we?
I think we say those kinds of phrases because we feel the incessant need to explain everything that happens when we should just admit we don't know why things happened the way they did.
And I think we could potentially do way more harm than good to those who struggle with belief when we attribute these things to God's will all the time.
Some more food for thought! I actually have been listening to some tapes of Jerry Bridges "Trusting God" that a freind sent me. He says that bad things can and are God's will, as pointed out in Mt. i think chapter 10 vs.19, I know it is verse 19 somewhere! and other parts of the OT. (where Jesus says 'not a sparrow falls down without being God's will'). That was really hard for me. In a sense, it gives peace because the whole point of that is that God is always in control, even when the situations are horrible (like losing a child, i.e.). But then, here you go opening my mind to this is not what God really wants: death, anger, hurt, war, hatred, etc. I liked what the person said in part 1 said, God doesn't get what he wants, but he is hopeful :)
Say hi to your sweet wife and little Miriam!
hugs from the Wryes (Miriam, Jon and Jeremiah)
Interesting conversation, which I've also been chewing on for a couple years now. Although I find the discussion surrounding the openness of God fascinating, it seems too often to end with, "God doesn't know everything," and thus fails to address what God does know/desire. The latter is a question I'm intrigued in: if all things don't happen according to God's plan, or if he doesn't always get his way, what does he desire? And in light of that, what then are we to desire?
As an example, does God care whether we live with my family or Trina's family this summer? Perhaps; I won't deny him the freedom to desire what he desires. However, it seems that the witness of Scripture is that God cares more about who we are, wherever we are, than just where we are.
And so stuff happens, because that's what life is all about, and God's supreme interest is in how we handle it. Like, if we found ourselves facing the cross and begged for there to be another way and God says, "No," will we stay put anyway?
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