Why would a person that has lived a virtually struggle free life see a need or desire for a relationship with God? For example, I think the struggles I faced growing up and the poor decisions I made make me appreciate God's grace probably moreso than someone that has lived a virtually struggle free life and just tends to be a "good person".. Where do they find the need for God? Does it take struggles, tragedy, etc. for a person to appreciate the love and grace of God?
Thursday, September 9, 2010
If life is going OK, why do I need God?
Good morning all. Here is another excellent question emailed to me for the blog. It deals with the need for God. I have a handful of friends who have had a good life and to date have never really felt the need to know God. I also know some folks who have had very difficult times in life and likewise see no need for God because he allowed them to suffer so much. Can any of you out there identify with this?
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Whatever your past is, we can all agree that there has been many bumps, ups and downs, however big, and however small. Just sitting here, I can think of at least 5 big moments in my life that were “bumps” or “ruts.” Did they change me, yes. For the better? I hope so. Why did they happen? I believe it is because God allows us, lets us fall, so He can build us back up. How often did a friendship fall apart, and friends lost, by one simple word, or conversation? Or how the strongest buildings, no matter how brilliantly engineered, can fall down, and crumble in the slightest rumble of the earth? Its just a drastic reminder of how fragile human-made things are…including our lives.
ReplyDelete1 John 5:5 “Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Ultimately, if you live without God, and build your own life, and everything is perfect, one of two things will happen. One; you will live the charmed life, have everything you think is important and what you need that is vital to your existance. Then one day, you will be drastically suprised when the Lord returns, and everything you set your life on, the goals you set, the people you hurt to get “on top”, will be gone. Your efforts wasted, and no progress made. The honest truth, the Lord will take away all that is not for Him, of Him, or by Him.
Or two; you follow Christ, you will put your faith in Him, and you will do what is His. You’ll do it for Him, by Him, and it will be His work, and His work is important, and it is eternal. It would be a shame that all one lived for would one day be gone, and all the efforts, whether with a good heart or not, were wasted.
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heaven will pass away like a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
The need for God comes in times of need. And it seems, that’s the main way people come to Him, and thats the best way of breaking a stoney heart. Wham bam… It should, but they rarely come, also, when people are “living the high life.” Praise the Father that has allowed your charmed life, and thank Him. He is the provider. I would encourage everyone to give thanks, pray and praise the good Lord, for what He has given you. Like a swift breath, your super structure that you have engineered, could, and ultimately may, come crumbling to the ground. Have faith, and know that He will lift you up, when no one else will, and nothing you do can.
2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who has called us to his own glory and excellence.”
I think that in addition to our own difficulties, some also seek God because of the difficulties they see in others. Perhaps they hope that knowing God would help them love and understand others in such a way as to alleviate pain. Moreover, it is hard to imagine a life devoid of difficulty. One would have to shelter him/herself behind a strong fortress to avoid the kind of human interactions which lead to difficulty on a daily basis, and no matter how great the pleasures are behind those walls, it would most likely be a miserable and lonely experience in the end.
ReplyDeleteBut I see where this may come to a philosophical question as well: If the only way to come to God (the good) is by seeking him through difficulty and pain (evil), then does the good require evil in order to exist? It seems contradictory for the good to necessitate evil prior to its existance.
The only adequate answer I have ever found to this question was through Christian theology (and, incidentally, I found this drop of water as a lapsed believer in a dark time of my life). If Christianity is correct in stating that God preceeded us (and isn't just an idea that we came up with), that he created us, and that we humans chose evil by an act of free will, then it seems as though that which is good doesn't require evil at all in order to exist. God can exist independently of humans and of human choices. It is we who need evil in order to understand the good, and vice versa.
Not sure if we were headed that far, but we might as well fill in any pitfalls along the way.
Additionally, not all evils are themselves evil, or at least they may not stay that way for long. I just read a good quote by Martin Luther: "When I am angry, I can pray well and preach well." Sometimes the difficulties of life can push us on to higher things. Evils in such instances may be turned into goods, which is essentially what happens over and over again in the gospel.
ReplyDelete(Luther quoted in "Goethe; or, the Writer" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, http://www.emersoncentral.com/goethe.htm)
Do people exist who have virtually struggle free lives? Even Paris Hilton has to decide what shoes to wear in the morning. My point: everyone has struggles that seem major at the time. Furthermore, if you're a bible believer, God cursed us (all of us) to toil under the sun when he booted Adam and Eve from paradise, right? No one can avoid struggle.
ReplyDeleteDoes it take struggles, tragedy, etc. for a person to appreciate the love and grace of God? I doubt it because I bet that Adam and Eve appreciated all of God before they ate the forbidden fruit, but I think that this question raises a good point: Is evil necessary?
According to the Genesis story referred to my Brian, God cursed the world (humans, work, creation, etc..) SO that it wouldn't work the way that it was originally designed to work. In other words, humans were supposed to live in harmony with God, nature, each other etc... but when sin entered the picture all that was fractured. Hence, when we experience the brokenness of the world it is a reminder that the fundamental relationship between Creator and creation is broken and in need of a remedy.... So to answer the original question above: yes, experiencing pain and suffering is a very important way to come to know God because it is reminder that we are in need of Him and his healing/forgiveness/reconciliation.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Jesus also taught about having 'faith as a child'. This faith in God was not necessarily a product of understanding/or experiencing personal brokenness caused by the fall but rather the fruit of a sincere/wholehearted trust in Jesus regardless of a person's life circumstances...