Disappointed in God? Lower Your Expectations

"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." 1 Corinthians 10:26

Why Did God create tsunamis and cancer and child abuse? Okay, he didn’t create them, I hear you saying. He allowed them. Same difference, if he’s all-powerful.

Why is there suffering at all? God can do anything, and he allowed Satan to have his way with the world. So here we are, stuck with natural disasters, illness, wars, and money problems. We’re stuck having to learn about him through a book that was written long ago by imperfect people who spoke in various languages and lived in various cultures. Even Christians can’t agree on what it means.

God is all-loving? Then where is he? We have to learn how to talk to him in spite of the fact that we (okay, I’ll speak for myself. I…) never actually hear his voice.

Hey, God, could you throw us a bone once in a while? You could enter a burning bush from time to time, just to let us know you’re still here. It’s been 2000 years since anyone actually touched you. That’s a long time for us humans. We’ve got pretty short attention spans.

God, if I were you, I would do such a better job! I’d start by ending all war, all hunger, and all pain. Then I’d have a good long talk with everybody. I’d explain things in plain language. No more parables. No more looking it up in the Greek. Then… I’d give the people what they want. Everyone. Everything. Why not? I’m God, and I can make it so there’s enough to go around!

Then everyone would be happy and grateful and there would be no discussion of hell; because there would be no need for hell!

Impossible? Not for me. I’m God!

Yeah. There’s fantasy, and there’s reality. The fact remains: That’s not the way it is.

I’m not saying that God can’t meet all our needs. Not at all. What I am saying is that we’ve constructed a view of God that’s unrealistic. For many of us (including me sometimes) he’s the “great genie in the sky.” He’s there to meet all our desires, whatever they are. Even though he doesn’t, we continue to believe that he does!

And that’s just not the way it is. God does not intend us to have it all, all the time, so why pretend? He does want us to be happy with what we have.

He wants us to find peace:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27

and love:

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16

and joy:

I came that you may have and enjoy life and have it in abundance, until it overflows. John 10:10

even in this weird, crazy, imperfect world. So that’s what I’m gonna try to do.

The real world is gloriously imperfect. It’s full of rainy days, crazy in-laws, dust-bunnies, and mosquitoes.

Let’s celebrate it!

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Peace, Love, and Joy