I SERIOUSLY THINK IF my Bible said God waited patiently for billions of years until the species of man finally crawled out of the goo or pulled itself together as a result of the big bang, the smart people against God would say that was impossible.
They might then argue that the complexities of systems involved within the human being would require some extraordinary intercession, and Bible believers were idiots.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to commit intellectual suicide to believe God spoke creation into being and his hands made Adam and Eve. In my mind, it’s no more outlandish than Carl Sagan calling whatever it is that stirs the human spirit as “star stuff”.
Star stuff?
And he was a brilliant man.
Regardless of what happened in the beginning of existence, if I admit it took something to create the material that banged together which led to the human body—or the monkey—I then must admit I might belong to this incredible force of energy.
Ah, and that’s the real rub, isn’t it?
If I believe I came from goo, I can believe I will also evolve into something even more magnificent, right?
The idea of belonging to God is so much more difficult to me than believing in God.
I don’t want to belong to a God in whom I must serve and especially one I cannot prove is good. Who wants to serve anyone but himself, much less an inadequate king, ruthless dictator, or unfair leader?
I cannot argue that God appears to be inadequate, ruthless, and unfair and because this is my reality, how can I accept that he is good?
It has been a wild trip for me, but in order to see that God is good, I had to travel through circumstances in my life where my deepest feelings about God were revealed. The church lady had to admit that I believed God was inadequate, ruthless, and unfair and therefore not good.
How can a good parent deny what a good child wants; refuse to let her travel the road she desires; allow her to suffer pain and misery from the failure of her own efforts?
If you’re a good parent, you know why.
I had to learn that I don’t always have to know why. I had to learn that what I think is inadequate, ruthless, and unfair does not make it so.
I had to learn that if I will accept by faith that God is sovereign, loving and fair; and I was not given the ability to make sense of everything that happens to me, God would prove himself to me. Every time.
The key is to begin my day with the presupposition that on the grand organizational chart, God is at the top and I am somewhere under him. He has a plan and purpose for my life and as hard as I try, I’m not moving up the ladder to CEO. I can think it unfair that someone else gets a better job, or more attention, or more favor, but it is only an exercise in futility.
God is in charge, always has been and always will be. He allows me one significant choice.
It is the choice to abandon his company.
There is no middle ground. I’m either all in or all out. If I’m all in, he will bring me closer to himself. If I’m all in, he will not let me out of his grip even when I cry and moan and shake my fist at him.
If I’m all out he will erase my name from the book of life and consider me a competitor and enemy. It is that simple.
So, how do I know God is good?
It would be a cruel and unkind God that would not reveal himself through nature so that I could hope that he exists; and then even more cruel to not forgive me, a created being, for trying to be my own god.
It is a good God who would put inside me his voice that whispers: Trust me. I know. And I love you dearly.
Whoever is not with me is against me.—Jesus Matthew 12:30
Revelation 1:8,1 Chronicles 25:8, Job 42:2, Psalm 135:6, Isaiah 43:13, Matthew 19:26, John 3:18-20
As always, it is my intent and hope that my words may encourage you wherever you are in your journey.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.–Jesus (Mark 4:23)
