I believe that the American evangelical movement (at least in the last few decades) has tried to sell Christianity as a "fix" to our problems. Some of you who are old enough may even remember Andrae Crouch's song, "Jesus Is the Answer"... Of course, Jesus is the "answer," but in a mystical, global way; in terms of concrete life experience, it seems Jesus leads us into more questions, fewer answers. He did a lot of that in the Gospel stories, for example.
God doesn't fix our problems so much as enable us to deal with them. I see example after example of that in stories throughout the Bible. One of the oldest stories is the one of Jacob reconnecting with Esau after decades of running away from the consequences of screwing up that relationship (which, in all fairness, was a situation their parents before them had escalated). Jacob's scary reunion with Esau happened directly after Jacob wrestled with the angel of Lord, got a blessing & a new name (Israel) from God. His closer connection with God helped him to walk into his problems, rather than avoiding them; but God didn't magically fix them. In a sense, though, I see that Jacob & Esau's obedience and courage (on both sides) gave God space to work within. They both had to "go there" before he was gonna "go there." It's back to the free will-sovreignty paradox.
Sometimes God takes the "E.T. finger" to things in an instantaneous way, but I think usually, he chooses to work through the time-space continuum, through the physical-spiritual beings he has created. But YES, I can relate to the desire for fixin'. And I don't think it's ever wrong to ask for the "E.T. finger" of fast healing ;-) You never know.
As a Sesame Street watcher in my youth, I think about Luis's "Fix It" shop and how everything seemed to get fixed within one episode... strangely, Luis never said, "It's not worth the trouble! Just throw it away!" Well, in that sense, maybe Luis and God have something in common ;-)
I was telling Rod last week that it's so hard not to feel discouraged when things take time, but I have to fight that discouragement, especially when I'm choosing to intercede in prayer (and in more "concrete" relational, lifestyle choices) over a long period of time. God, for some stinkin' reason, likes to take time. Sometimes. Sometimes I do too, so I can't exactly blame him; that would be hypocritical. Sigh.
OK, so "God is weird" list includes:
1) created the platypus, as well as funky deep undersea creatures that never see the light of day
2) made so many stars that even in studying them for thousands of years, we haven't gotten to them all... wouldn't a "few" stars suffice? What's the point of billions of stars? Billions of insects...OK, there's health in diversity of life. But stars aren't "alive" (or are they????)
3) designed human sexuality and reproduction
4) allowed himself to be confined by a human body
5) runs his fix-it shop on a millenial time table or somethin' (Reminds me of the guitar that my bandmate Craig gave to someone to work on back in October...he's really good at fixing instruments...but is it back yet? No! But I trust God has a point to waiting, as opposed to this guy, I dunno. Maybe this other fix-it guy's overcommitted?)
6) can do everything at once without being overcommitted--God's the ultimate multi-tasker--I am so not worthy to even complain. But, I make my God is weird list anyway, and if you need to move further away on the table, I'll understand. |