What Are We Standing On
There is a resolution introduced in Harrisburg that has been
circulating on my social media feeds.
The resolution calls on Pennsylvanians to repent of their sins in the
hopes that that will make the global pandemic go away. It has been roundly mocked and condemned, at
least from folks in my networks who have shared it on their feeds.
To be sure, suffering is not always as a result of personal
sin. However, suffering is always an opportunity
for self-examination. Suffering is
sifting, and the question is: as we are being sifted, what remains?
As believers, our worldview and therefore our motivations
should be radically distinct. While we
may resemble others in many ways, we should not be the same in terms of our
understanding of the existence and purpose of suffering, and the mindset and
mission of the believer in the midst of it.
I have written before about the centrality of the Biblical
command of “no other gods before Me.”
Our God is a jealous God, and His goodness and authority compel us to
not settle for anything less than Him.
When we suffer, often what is exposed are the things we stand
upon instead of standing solely upon Him.
During this global pandemic, it could be any number of things, which by
themselves are not inherently bad but which become bad in that they are relied
on above God who is unfailing and unchanging:
- Our health
- Our money
- Our routine
- Our social connections
- Our social standing
- Our intelligence
Again, none of these are bad things. All of these things, in fact, are good
things, gifts from God for our enjoyment.
For which our posture should be gratitude and reliance.
But if instead we turn these things into gods, by relying on
them instead of God, that is the definition of idolatry. And we know we are engaging in this when they
are ripped away from us and we feel unmoored as a result.
To be sure, these are scary, uncertain, and wobbly
times. There is no escaping that
fact. If you are not moved by what all
is going on in the world, you are not human.
And yet it is also human, grievously human, to seek control. To be our own gods, or to pick out gods we
can touch and control. Rather than trust
in an almighty and loving God.
This is the essence of faith, and it stands in contrast to
how most of us act most of the time, a posture that at least for me is being
painfully exposed at a time of great shaking and sifting. I am ashamed of how many idols I have in my
life – all of the above list and then some – and of how far short I have fallen
from exercising real faith amid the world getting turned upside down.
I am humbled, challenged, and moved by the many faithful
people around me, who are doing what believers ought to be free and inspired to
do. Which is, trusting that God is good
and ever holds them, doing the work God commands of them, of looking out for the
most vulnerable among them, raising their voices and deploying their hands and moving
their feet in service of others.
Man desires to be in control, and finds true faith utterly
frightening. But having an idol-free
life, while making you look very peculiar in a landscape littered with idols,
is an absolutely freeing and exhilarating and purposeful existence.
We do not often know what God’s plans are or why they are
the way they are. But we do know how we
ought to act, and what invitation has been extended for us to walk into. Here’s hoping, day by crazy day, we take one step
in that direction, the direction that leads to life.
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