Translating a World on the Edge

Sometimes as Christians we get a little smug, especially when we’ve been blessed with some good fortune.

We may think we are favored more than others by God.

We may even think that those who suffer from something caused by their own choices are not as good  or as righteous as we,  because WE have followed the will of God, and THEY haven’t.

That kind of thinking is prideful, and judgmental.  It puts others below us—and those others, no matter what they have done, or didn’t do, are equally loved by God.

Sometimes, we have the idea that God is some kind of  Sugar Daddy.  that God is saying “You do this for me, and I’ll do that for you.” In other w0rds, if we’re good, He’ll give us what we ask for, and if not He’ll pay us back with suffering.

If we think this way, we’re deceiving ourselves.

God does not always give us what we ask for, but what we need.  And what we need may be hard to take. We may even have to suffer because of it.

We have in our heads that God is a good God. Of course, He is. But He is also a wise God who sees us as we truly are–after all He created us and He knows us intimately.

What we think is good for us is often the opposite of what we need. Remember our goal is eternal life. Only God knows what it will take for each of us personally to achieve it.

So how do we come to grips with the fact that God has allowed suffering in our lives–not because we are less than good,  but because we are meant to be more than we are?

The only way is through Trust. A total surrender to God, knowing He loves us as a parent, as our Creator, and not as our personal Sugar Daddy.