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My newest Christianity Today column has been posted here. It's entitled "Here's to All The Losers" and is an anecdotal look at an experience I had coming to the end of my own resources and discovering that God's strength and provision is better than my own. (Surprise!) The responses to the article have been interesting. Because I drew a parellel between my own experience (developing laryngitis on a concert tour) and an aspect of the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel in Genesis 32 (Jacob could not be blessed until his own strength was overcome) ... some readers have taken my point to be that obstacles/tragedies/difficulties are always from the hand of God. Not so much! For me, the point was that it's better to get to the end of ourselves and need God than to operate in an illusion of self-sufficiency and miss all He has for us -- how we get to the end of ourselves will be wildly different in each situation. I think life on a broken planet will most often get us there free of charge, and I certainly don't take every difficulty I face as a chess move on God's behalf. Quite the contrary. But, whether we're wrestling God, our own natures, life itself or even the devil, the faster we can come to the end of our own strength and into God's, the better (even though the sensation is usually more than a little unpleasant while it's happening.) If you have a chance to read the piece, I'd be interested to hear you thoughts. Blessings, Carolyn |
Comments
I think your conclusion explains it well Carolyn. God doesn't cause all the bad things in our life - we shouldn't forget the roles of Satan, a fallen world and our own sinful nature. That doesn't mean He doesn't use them to draw us closer to Him (Romans 5:3-8, 2 Cor. 4:17, James 1:2-4,12, Psalm 34:18). Theodicy will cause "interesting" responses.
"We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country." - C.S. Lewis
Congratulations on being blogger of the week! :)
Hi Carolyn,
Not sure where some of your CT responses were coming from; possibly the murky depths of the Jabbock. Mercy.
I appreciated your words very much. Whether they were fundamentalist or devotional seems to matter little, for they were human, and that's the point. I believe the thrust of that passage is that Jacob "prevailed" - I don't feel he ever gave up, even after being sucker punched in the hip. The text says the angel/man/God said "Let me go" and Jacob said, "Nothing doin', pal." So, in some way, it seems these are words about perseverance of the saints, be they limping or not. You persevered via steam baths and peppermint schnopps or whatever. You hung in there. And blessing, God's blessing, although different than the chicken soup for the soul version, was heard and felt by yourself, the audience, and I believe, the Lord himself.
Far from intimating a "weak" God, this story rather highlights the strength and courage that God sometimes desires in his sons and daughters. For me, it's the difference between having to say "uncle" with one arm behind our back and God being the bully AND being able to say "Father" as God says, "Well done. You're getting stronger..."