Sometimes God's Will Sucks
Just because it’s God’s will doesn’t mean it won’t suck.
Now let me be entirely clear. I do not claim to know God’s will. I am not saying the thing/things that happened/is happening/will happen to you, the thing that keeps you up at night and makes you weep uncontrollably when you thought you were out of tears, is God’s will. Terrible awful unimaginable things happen. They are not God’s fault or his will. They are a result of the fall. As Susan E Isaacs put it “We live in a fallen world and it sucks.”
That doesn’t mean that God’s will is always peachy, good times. The cross was God’s will. Despite being the singular salvation of all of humanity, I think that if asked, Jesus himself would say “Yeah that sucked.” Being crucified sucks. Pain and fear suck. Sometimes they are necessary. That sucks too.
When a terrible thing happens many Christians are adamant that “You can’t question God.” or “You can’t be angry with God.” I call bullshit. Yes I can and will be angry and question God. As my friend Suzanne says “God can take it.” What I cannot do, is believe that my all powerful, omnipresent God could not have stopped that terrible thing. He CAN do anything. He could have turned Hitler into a toad. He could have made the planes used in the 9-11 attacks land gently atop a pile of pillows, despite anything those hijackers did.
He didn’t. I don’t know why. I do question why. I can write a list of the pretty cool things that happened in this country after those attacks. I can tell you it brought people together in a huge way. I cannot say to you, or the people who lost loved ones, “Yep that’s why God let that happen.” It is not that simple. Even if God came to me today and explained that an entire continent was better off, because of the crap thing that keeps me up at night, I wouldn’t agree with his tactics. I don’t love that continent like I loved what I lost. Nothing could justify that thing to me.
God’s ways are not our own. It’s like when I order a cheeseburger. (Now bear with me, this analogy is going to stretch the limits of my narcissism. Yes, I am comparing my diet to God running the universe.) I will order a cheeseburger, with bacon on top and fried things on the side, and then get a diet soda. Now, if you weigh 12 pounds, or have a healthy relationship with food, or hate artificial sweeteners, that probably sounds crazy to you.
You’re right, it is crazy. I am eating 1,000 calories and then saving 300 on the drink. But I know that to me, a good bacon cheeseburger is worth every single greasy, glorious calorie. A real Dr. Pepper is not worth even one. Ok, maybe just one, but certainly not 300 or more. God does things that we don’t understand, but if you can agree that God is smarter, better, and generally less crazy than me, you can assume he had good reasons.
His ways are not ours. They don’t make sense to us, but they are good. He is good. When things suck, when terrible things happen, when you are up at night weeping tears you didn’t think you had, he is still good. He is still doing good things. He has a plan for us, and is setting a path before us, but there is no guarantee that it won’t suck sometimes.
Now let me be entirely clear. I do not claim to know God’s will. I am not saying the thing/things that happened/is happening/will happen to you, the thing that keeps you up at night and makes you weep uncontrollably when you thought you were out of tears, is God’s will. Terrible awful unimaginable things happen. They are not God’s fault or his will. They are a result of the fall. As Susan E Isaacs put it “We live in a fallen world and it sucks.”
That doesn’t mean that God’s will is always peachy, good times. The cross was God’s will. Despite being the singular salvation of all of humanity, I think that if asked, Jesus himself would say “Yeah that sucked.” Being crucified sucks. Pain and fear suck. Sometimes they are necessary. That sucks too.
When a terrible thing happens many Christians are adamant that “You can’t question God.” or “You can’t be angry with God.” I call bullshit. Yes I can and will be angry and question God. As my friend Suzanne says “God can take it.” What I cannot do, is believe that my all powerful, omnipresent God could not have stopped that terrible thing. He CAN do anything. He could have turned Hitler into a toad. He could have made the planes used in the 9-11 attacks land gently atop a pile of pillows, despite anything those hijackers did.
He didn’t. I don’t know why. I do question why. I can write a list of the pretty cool things that happened in this country after those attacks. I can tell you it brought people together in a huge way. I cannot say to you, or the people who lost loved ones, “Yep that’s why God let that happen.” It is not that simple. Even if God came to me today and explained that an entire continent was better off, because of the crap thing that keeps me up at night, I wouldn’t agree with his tactics. I don’t love that continent like I loved what I lost. Nothing could justify that thing to me.
God’s ways are not our own. It’s like when I order a cheeseburger. (Now bear with me, this analogy is going to stretch the limits of my narcissism. Yes, I am comparing my diet to God running the universe.) I will order a cheeseburger, with bacon on top and fried things on the side, and then get a diet soda. Now, if you weigh 12 pounds, or have a healthy relationship with food, or hate artificial sweeteners, that probably sounds crazy to you.
You’re right, it is crazy. I am eating 1,000 calories and then saving 300 on the drink. But I know that to me, a good bacon cheeseburger is worth every single greasy, glorious calorie. A real Dr. Pepper is not worth even one. Ok, maybe just one, but certainly not 300 or more. God does things that we don’t understand, but if you can agree that God is smarter, better, and generally less crazy than me, you can assume he had good reasons.
His ways are not ours. They don’t make sense to us, but they are good. He is good. When things suck, when terrible things happen, when you are up at night weeping tears you didn’t think you had, he is still good. He is still doing good things. He has a plan for us, and is setting a path before us, but there is no guarantee that it won’t suck sometimes.