GETTING REAL ABOUT GOD

This entry was my answer to a question in a Beth Moore Bible Study last fall.

In what regular situations do you face the adult version of "peer pressure," having to make the choice between being yourself and being who others want you to be?

My discipleship group discussed the great commission today.When I was asked what I would tell people to draw them to Christ, I said "I would tell them they wouldn't have to go to Hell. That's about it." I was feeling angry with God that day and totally helpless in my attempts to feel better. I'm positive that I made a couple of people in the group uncomfortable. One of my friends tried to rephrase what I said. When I continued to disagree with her, she said nice things about me. I continued to disagree.

I can be such an evil soul. I so often refuse to play the kind of "nice" that keeps everyone around me feeling relaxed and pleasant. I am especially prone to misbehave around others who, like myself, are giving it all they've got to keep life comfortable.

Harry S. Sullivan, A Psychiatrist whose interpersonal theory I once drew on in the role of counselor, said that most human behavior is motivated by a desire to avoid anxiety. If we believe that life is about us, our comfort and our happiness, then there will always be anxiety when something upsets the equilibrium of our belief systems. And we will try to fix whatever is causing us to feel anxious.

The thing is, my faith is too important to me to have to pretend about it. So many times in religious types of groups, there are rules about conversation. We must always say "It is well with my soul" regardless of how it is. We can be mad at God. We can be doubting God. We can be yelling at our spouses on the cell phone all the way to group, but when we get there, it is well with our souls. Gross!

Usually I try to tone down my blatant honesty a bit to save others the energy it takes to make me be "nice" again so that they will in turn feel "comfortable." However, I much prefer to be real ....and, as my Daddy use to say, and let the chips fall where they may. I'm not talking about being insensitive to other people. I am talking about honesty regarding myself and my own walk with God. I am talking about saying "Yes, I did feel pain when that leg fell off on the ski slope. And, I'm not yet to the place of thanking God for the new wooden one." (Just an example, my legs are both currently attached.)

If we have to pretend about faith, then I think we are talking about "pretend faith" are we not?As fellow servants of Christ, I believe that we have similar struggles, earthly heartaches, and times of doubting the One who means most to us. A Christian philosophy that presents God as a Santa Claus to make things good in our lives and fix everything is so damaging. It puts us in the position to feel rejected by God when we experience struggles.One of the most Godly women I've ever known became a Christian in such an environment. She and her family would anoint one another with oil and pray for healing. If the pain continued to be so bad that the sick person had to lie down, he or she continued to thank God for being healed.

Yes, we will all be healed and perfect and lacking nothing one day. But if God always heals (if we are good enough or ask correctly or have enough faith) then why on earth do Christians continue to die? This precious child of God died of Cancer believing she was "bad" and therefore she was paying for it. I believe that God sometimes heals and that He may do so in a miraculous manner, but I don't believe that being a Christian is about making our lives on earth comfortable.

In Larry Crabb's book, SHATTERED DREAMS, he talks about the differences between happiness and joy in the Christian life. He says that most Christians seek happiness in the same way non Christians do, through circumstances. Christians settle for and try to hang on to an earth bought happiness. Most don't ever experience the greater joy that God intended for us to have, a joy that transcends circumstances.

Here is an excerpt from SHATTERED DREAMS:

This book is an invitation to taste and see that the Lord is good even when the bottom falls out of your life. Let me repeat those three ideas that this invitation builds on:

1. God wants to bless you. He gets a kick out of making His children happy. He feels much the same way parents feel on Christmas morning as they anticipate watching their kids unwrap presents amid squeals of delight.

2. The deepest pleasure we're capable of experiencing is a direct encounter with God. In God's new way of dealing with people, He does us the most good by making Himself available to be enjoyed and be seeing to it that we seek an encounter with him with more energy than we seek anything else.But we almost always mistake lesser pleasures for this greatest pleasure and live our lives chasing after them. We're not in touch with our appetite for God.

3. So the Holy Spirit awakens that appetite. He uses the pain of shattered dreams to help us discover our desire for God, to help us begin dreaming the highest dream. Shattered dreams are not accidents of fate. They are ordained opportunities for the Spirit first to awaken then to satisfy our highest dream.

I would highly recommend any of Larry Crabb's books. Check out his website. http://www.newwayministries.org/

As for me, my pretend God has been shattered. As I cautiously approach the true Creator, I have dropped my pretense and move forward with genuine hope.