Perspective: God Is in Control?

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God Is in Control?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under their feet...

Psalm 8:3-6 (NRSV)

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given

Use them, and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in

From "Land of Confusion" by Genesis

Lately, a lot of people have been saying that "God is in control."  I'm sure that many, especially pastors, have been saying this in order to comfort people in a time of fear and uncertainty.  Still, I suspect that others might be saying this as an excuse to shirk any personal responsibility they have right now.

I'm not so sure that, at this present moment, the most God-honoring thing a person could say is that "God is in control."  Consider the implications.  If God is indeed in control, as people say, then why have more than three hundred sixty-seven thousand people in the world died of COVID-19?  If God is in control, then God is either directly responsible for the pandemic or complicit for not preventing it.  According to St. John, "God is love,"¹ and according to St. Paul, "love is kind."²  Inflicting people with a deadly illness is neither loving nor kind.  As Greg Boyd recently pointed out, if Jesus Christ, "the image of the invisible God,"³ was in the business of healing people of their diseases, then God must not be in the business of inflicting people with diseases.⁴

I believe that God gave human beings free will.  We have the power to make choices, and the choices we make have serious consequences for ourselves and for the world around us.  At the very beginning of the Bible, we read that "God created humanity in God's own image" and then proceeded to give humanity charge over the world and over all of the other creatures that live therein.⁵  In other words, God made human beings like Godself by giving them the ability to shape the world God created.  Perhaps one could say that we are co-creators with God.

It is hard to reconcile the idea that God is in control with the idea the human beings have free will.  If God is really in control, then our choices are either illusory, since God is the one making them for us, or inconsequential, so that they do not interfere with God's will.  On the other hand, if God gave us free will, then God must have yielded some of God's control over the world to us.

I am not suggesting that God is inactive or that God does not have a plan for the world.  Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."⁶  He would not have taught us to pray that the Kingdom of God is made manifest on the earth if God has no intention of ever making such a request a reality.  Furthermore, God is able to use our choices and their consequences - be they good or bad - in order to bring about God's purposes.  According to St. Paul, "We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose."⁷  Though God has a plan for the world, God is not orchestrating everything that happens along the way; however, God is ready for every contingency.

There are plenty of other things that could be said about God to comfort people at this time.

God is love.

God is good.

God is with us.

God is trustworthy.

God is not unmoved by our pain.

God brings good out of evil.

As beings created in God's image, we have been given the power to make choices that have real consequences.  We must be mindful of how our choices affect other people.  We must not use God's sovereignty as a lazy answer or as an excuse to be irresponsible.  God has a plan for the world, and when we align our choices to God's will, we give God the opportunity to work through us and not in spite of us.

Notes:

1. 1 John 4:8
2. 1 Corinthians 13:4
3. Colossians 1:15
4. Greg Boyd.  "COVID-19: A Kingdom Perspective."  Woodland Hills Church, 03/15/2020.
5. Genesis 1:27-28 (CEB)
6. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
7. Romans 8:28 (CEB)

The photograph "The Blue Marble" was taken by an astronaut during the Apollo 17 mission.  It has been released to the public domain.

Introspection: At Home

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Comments are always welcomed.

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At Home

There's a season for everything
and a time for every matter under the heavens...
a time for mourning and a time for dancing...
a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces...

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4b, 5b (CEB)

It seems like every day's the same

And I'm left to discover on my own

It seems like everything is gray

And there's no color to behold

From "Fine Again" by Seether

Two days ago, I reread the story of Noah from the Book of Genesis.¹  Reading this story amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when I'm spending most of my time at home, caused me to ponder some questions I had not pondered previously.  Did Noah's family become bored during the months they spent on the ark?  Did they miss the lives they lived before the flood?  Did they hope that someday their lives would somehow return to normal?  Were they afraid?  Did they pray that God would make the floodwaters recede?

Over the last two months, I've spent a lot more time at home than I spent previously.  The choice to stay at home was not one I made eagerly, but, when everywhere I went was closed and everything I did was cancelled, the choice became a lot easier to make.  Truth be told, I haven't hated spending so much time at home as much as I expected.  I've just needed to make sure, for the sake of my mental and emotional health, that I'm getting out of the house every once and a while and taking the available opportunities to connect with my friends.  To my own surprise, I've actually enjoyed working from home.  I should have expected that I would appreciate something that would give me more free time and personal freedom.

I think that, at some point, I took to heart the idea that nothing would happen in my life if I spent all my time at home, so I made it a point to spend as little time at home as possible.  Of course, this strategy did not cause as much to happen as I had hoped.  I guess I should have internalized another lesson I had learned, that nothing good will happen in my life without intentionality.

Though I haven't hated spending so much time at home, I've found myself missing some of the things I did before the pandemic.  Many of the things I miss are ordinary, like listening to some of my favorite podcasts while driving to dinner, eating at my favorite sushi restaurant, collecting my thoughts while enjoying coffee at a bookstore cafe, and listening to some of my favorite music on my way home.  I've also missed dancing.  I started contra dancing again in July of last year, and I considered my return to dancing a personal victory.  I attended nine dances last year and hoped to attend twice as many this year, but I only made it to two dances before they were canceled because of the pandemic.  I hope that social distancing soon becomes unnecessary so that social dancing can make a comeback.

I've considered what I might do differently if life ever returns to normal.  Maybe I won't feel the need to float around town every day before coming home for the evening.  Maybe, on some days, I'll enjoy my afternoon coffee at home, as I have been doing lately.  I would like to continue enjoying dinners at home with my mother.  As I've noted previously, I've been taking walks around my neighborhood, since I cannot walk where I used to walk.  I would like to continue walking around my neighborhood, in the hopes of actually getting to know the people who live around me for once.

It is easy to say now what I hope to do at some indeterminate point in the future, but one thing I hope I never do again is to take for granted what is important to me.  Life, I've learned, can change quickly.


Notes:

1. Genesis 6:5-9:17

The photograph featured in this introspection was taken by me in the front yard at my home.

Easter Perspective: A Matter of Seeing

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

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A Matter of Seeing

They were prevented from recognizing him.

Luke 24:16 (CEB)

Open the eyes of my heart, Lord

Open the eyes of my heart

I want to see You

I want to see You

From "Open the Eyes of My Heart" by Paul Baloche

In the Gospel of John, we read that, on the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified, Mary Magdalene goes out to visit Jesus' tomb.  When she arrives, she finds that the tomb had been opened.  She runs to Jesus' disciples and says, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they've put him."  Two of the Disciples then go to the tomb to investigate the situation for themselves.  When Mary returns to the tomb and looks inside, she sees two angels sitting where Jesus' body had been laid.  They ask her why she is crying, and she says, "They have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've put him."¹

Mary then turns around and encounters a man she assumes is a gardener.  He asks her why she is crying and whom she is seeking.  She says, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him."  The supposed gardener says Mary's name, and Mary realizes that she is talking with Jesus.²

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, on the same day, two of Jesus' followers are walking to Emmaus with their heads hung low and talking about recent events.  A fellow traveler joins them and asks them what they are discussing.  They tell him about Jesus, about their hopes that He would liberate their people from oppression, about His untimely demise, and about the news that His body was missing from the tomb.  Their fellow traveler then tells them all the things that the Scriptures foretold about their long-awaited Messiah and suggests that all of these things had to happen.³

The two followers of Jesus' reach their destination and insist that their fellow traveler stay with them for the night.  While they are all seated for dinner, the mysterious traveler takes some bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to the other two.  The two, recognizing these actions, suddenly realize that they had been walking with Jesus the whole time.⁴

In the Gospel of John, we read that, one night later on, Peter decides to go fishing, and a number of the Disciples decide to go with him.  They spend the whole night sitting in a boat, not catching any fish.  In the morning, a man calls out to the Disciples from the seashore, asking if they have caught any fish.  They reply that they haven't caught anything, and the man tells them to throw out their net on the right side of the boat.  They do so and miraculously haul in a net full of fish.  They then realize that the man on the seashore is Jesus.⁵  According to Luke's Gospel, Jesus originally called a number of them to follow Him after performing a very similar miracle.⁶

Every year, people around the world hear these three stories during Eastertide.  What stands out to me this year about each of these stories is that, though the Risen Christ is present, people fail to recognize Him.  Some have suggested that Jesus' appearance was changed by the Resurrection, but I wonder if maybe there were other reasons that people who clearly knew Jesus could not recognize Him.  I wonder if maybe, for some reason, they were blinded to His presence.

Near the tomb, Jesus stood right in front of Mary, yet she did not recognize Him.  I wonder if maybe her grief is what kept her from recognizing Him.  She kept saying that someone had taken the Lord away, yet the Lord she was seeking was a dead man.  She did not realize that her Lord was standing right in front of her, alive and well.

On the Road to Emmaus, the two travelers walked with Jesus for miles without realizing who He was.  Perhaps they did not realize who He was because their heads were hung low in disappointment.

On the Boat, a number of the Disciples saw Jesus on the seashore, but, even though they had already seen Him alive and well at least a couple of times, they did not recognize Him.  I wonder if maybe they were blinded to His presence by a sense of failure.  They had failed to catch any fish during the night, but I think that maybe Peter decided to go fishing in the first place because he felt like a failure as a Disciple and had decided to return to his former life as a fisherman.  Before Jesus was arrested, Peter swore that he would remain faithful to Him even if it cost him his life.  A few hours later, he denied that he even knew Jesus.⁷

When I was a freshman in college, I watched a short-lived television show titled Joan of Arcadia.  In this show, the titular character Joan is a teenage girl who sees God.  She might see God as boy her age, a woman working in the school cafeteria, a little girl, a man walking a dog, or a number of other people.⁸  On the very first episode, Joan makes a comment about God's appearing to people, and God says to her, "I'm not appearing to you.  You are seeing me."⁹  I always thought this statement was theologically profound.

Maybe the Risen Christ is always present with us, as He was in the stories we hear around Easter, but maybe there are things in our lives like grief, disappointment, and failure that keep us from experiencing Him.  Maybe, like the people in the stories, we need to be awakened to Christ's presence in some way.  Christ awakened the frustrated Disciples to His presence with a miracle.  Christ awakened the disappointed travelers to His presence by doing what they had seen Him do in the past.¹⁰  Christ awakened the grieving Mary to His presence by simply saying her name.

As I noted previously, Easter just doesn't seem like Easter this year.  The Risen Christ is no less present in difficult times, but we might have a bit more trouble experiencing His presence.  Let us pray for eyes to see and for a wake-up call if we need one.


Notes:

1. John 20:1-13 (CEB)
2. John 20:14-16 (CEB)
3. Luke 24:13-27
4. Luke 24:28-31
5. John 21:1-8
6. Luke 5:1-11
7. John 13:36-38; 18:15-18, 25-27
8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367345/
9. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0616128/quotes/
10. See Luke 9:16 and Luke 22:19.

The Supper at Emmaus was painted by Caravaggio around 1601.