Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; play the lyre to our God, Who covers the sky with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, and causes grass to grow on the hills. He provides the animals with their food and to the little birds that call. (Verses 7-9)
"Either God has responsibility or he does not," said former Seventh Day Adventist pastor Ryan Bell. "If he does, it seems like he is doing a pretty bad job. If he does not, if he just wound the thing up and walked away, I don't see any point in worshiping a God like that."
I read an article this morning in the L.A. Times about how Bell walked away from his faith last year. Decided to give a full year to living without God. He's been to conventions of atheists and skeptics. Watched them as they sing songs mocking every kind of faith, but especially those who hate the very idea of worshiping the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible. Raised in a strict Adventist home, Bell became a pastor out of his zeal for religion. He followed the rules. Structured his life around Adventism. But his life became increasingly tough to square with the God Who answers our prayers based upon our good behavior and our trust in His goodness. What happened? Seems as though Bell's doubts grew first out of God's lack of intervention in the things the former pastor prayed for. Unanswered requests that lay there as if God didn't care. The social injustices of big city Hollywood, where his church was, seemed insurmountable: poverty, crime, predatory bankers. World suffering tipped the scales. The drowning of the students on the ferry in Seoul begged the question, "Where was God?" He could have/should have saved them. How can this be the same God Who knows the numbers of hairs on our heads and clothes the lilies in such splendor?
I don't pretend to be able to answer the questions that sent Ryan Bell into such a tailspin that now He can't reconcile the God he knew with the God he sees. That his quest to live without acknowledgement of God for a year is, I'm sure, an honest effort to find truth, I won't argue, either. God is the rewarder of those who truly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Bell's argument with God is that He isn't good. If He exists, His watch care over us is arbitrary, at best. Lazy, at worst. God sits above it all and every once in a while glances down to see what's going on. Sticks His finger into this or that mess to fix it up, then retreats to His evening martini without a second thought. I agree with Bell, that god is not worth worshiping.
Here is my response. I cannot live a second without the God I know. My God indwells me with His Holy Spirit without Whom I can't even breathe. My heart beats for Christ because He has captivated it with His love--little calling bird that I am whose mouth is open for His provision and whose life depends upon His watching over me. Do bad things happen? Yes! They will happen to Ryan Bell and to all of us whether we believe in the goodness of God or not. If we were to assume that God is good but hate Him that He is the creator of automotons who have no ability to choose, we would still have a god not worth worshiping because we would be powerless to do anything but give Him homage. To judge the character of God is ridiculous. It sets us up to be smarter than He, more loving than He, more prescient than He, more just than He. Gods ourselves. And what would that look like? Me being the god of everything? How just would I be? How loving? The world's a mess. Could I hope to fix it? Without the ability to fix the heart of man? Can Ryan Bell, in his heartfelt rebellion against the God he now judges, do better? He must think so. He has the hubris to say that God is doing a bad job with it all.
I can't even picture myself standing before the throne of God telling Him how much He's messed things up. How dare you not answer my prayers and give me everything I want! And, You have a horrible heart for letting the violence that fills the earth continue! Are you asleep? I'm not saying that I don't ever question what God is doing...or not doing. I ask my God why on a regular basis. Sometimes I see the answer; sometimes I don't. But I'd rather trust He's doing the right thing than to take matters in my own hands and trust that I will do it right.
And then there is Jesus. Historically, even in extra-biblical accounts, come to Earth where He worked miracles and rose from the dead. Why? Because God wanted once and for all to fix the very sin problem Bell so poignantly sees. But not by making us mind Him. By experiencing life with us in order to bring us into a kingdom where this stuff doesn't happen any more. If, as Christians, we believe this world isn't our home, that where Christ is is where we belong, then it makes sense this isn't going to be any paradise. People choose to do evil. People, like the captain of the ferry that killed the teenagers, choose to be irresponsible and take risks with the lives of others. We live in an imperfect world, and we, imperfect as we are, don't have the wisdom or the power to change the hearts of evil men. God cares enough, is involved enough, with His entire creation that He stepped into it and died for its redemption. He had a personal vendetta with evil. A squaring off with sin. And the root of it all is pride. Whether religious (I am so good God must love me and answer my every whim) or intellectual (I'm too smart for this religion stuff), pride that we know more about things than the God Who created everything will trip us up. Pride makes us stomp our feet and shake our fist in the face of the God Who gave His very life to save us from the real issue: ourselves.
Little birds who call and the animals on the hillside are just as evanescent as we are. We deal with death and disease here on Earth. If God only sees this...or wound it up and walked away, I agree with Bell, that would be a sham of a god. But the record shows He doesn't feel that way. The record shows God cares about the same injustices that rile us--make our anger roil. What a small and petty God Who would dismiss our heinous misdeeds with the wave of His hand. The thing is, God couldn't. He won't fix our actions and make up puppets. That is a lesser god, too. But He did offer a way to fix our hearts. Walked with us to heal our bodies in order to show us He has power to overcome our most evil and our most covert of sins. Died--bled out--to show how important mankind is to Him. What more could He do? God isn't Santa, sitting in the skies checking out who is naughty and nice, and giving the best gifts to the nicest kids. God is a Father Who birthed His children to lead them home to Him forever. He is the Sovereign over all His creation, dwelling in incomprehensible light in a realm vastly superior to Earth, with a knowledge of all things greatly surpassing anything we think we know, with power to create and power to crush. God would not be God if He thought as small as we do. I don't know why bad things happen. I get why that crushes the heart of Mr. Bell. But I do know the heart of my Father--knowing it better every day--is that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, those called to His purposes (Romans 8).
God is big enough to take our most profound questions. He isn't intimidated by our shaking fists or silent to our wearied hearts. He could be a God Who doesn't care. That wouldn't make Him any less God, though. Were He to choose to spin the Earth and walk away. Our anger wouldn't be any more or less justified, since it would be what God chose. But we know, from history even, that God isn't like that. That God hates religious posturing and adherence to manmade rules. The life and death of Jesus proves that God doesn't look away, but is so intricately aware of our needs that He came to save the little birds who call.
"Either God has responsibility or he does not," said former Seventh Day Adventist pastor Ryan Bell. "If he does, it seems like he is doing a pretty bad job. If he does not, if he just wound the thing up and walked away, I don't see any point in worshiping a God like that."
I read an article this morning in the L.A. Times about how Bell walked away from his faith last year. Decided to give a full year to living without God. He's been to conventions of atheists and skeptics. Watched them as they sing songs mocking every kind of faith, but especially those who hate the very idea of worshiping the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible. Raised in a strict Adventist home, Bell became a pastor out of his zeal for religion. He followed the rules. Structured his life around Adventism. But his life became increasingly tough to square with the God Who answers our prayers based upon our good behavior and our trust in His goodness. What happened? Seems as though Bell's doubts grew first out of God's lack of intervention in the things the former pastor prayed for. Unanswered requests that lay there as if God didn't care. The social injustices of big city Hollywood, where his church was, seemed insurmountable: poverty, crime, predatory bankers. World suffering tipped the scales. The drowning of the students on the ferry in Seoul begged the question, "Where was God?" He could have/should have saved them. How can this be the same God Who knows the numbers of hairs on our heads and clothes the lilies in such splendor?
I don't pretend to be able to answer the questions that sent Ryan Bell into such a tailspin that now He can't reconcile the God he knew with the God he sees. That his quest to live without acknowledgement of God for a year is, I'm sure, an honest effort to find truth, I won't argue, either. God is the rewarder of those who truly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Bell's argument with God is that He isn't good. If He exists, His watch care over us is arbitrary, at best. Lazy, at worst. God sits above it all and every once in a while glances down to see what's going on. Sticks His finger into this or that mess to fix it up, then retreats to His evening martini without a second thought. I agree with Bell, that god is not worth worshiping.
Here is my response. I cannot live a second without the God I know. My God indwells me with His Holy Spirit without Whom I can't even breathe. My heart beats for Christ because He has captivated it with His love--little calling bird that I am whose mouth is open for His provision and whose life depends upon His watching over me. Do bad things happen? Yes! They will happen to Ryan Bell and to all of us whether we believe in the goodness of God or not. If we were to assume that God is good but hate Him that He is the creator of automotons who have no ability to choose, we would still have a god not worth worshiping because we would be powerless to do anything but give Him homage. To judge the character of God is ridiculous. It sets us up to be smarter than He, more loving than He, more prescient than He, more just than He. Gods ourselves. And what would that look like? Me being the god of everything? How just would I be? How loving? The world's a mess. Could I hope to fix it? Without the ability to fix the heart of man? Can Ryan Bell, in his heartfelt rebellion against the God he now judges, do better? He must think so. He has the hubris to say that God is doing a bad job with it all.
I can't even picture myself standing before the throne of God telling Him how much He's messed things up. How dare you not answer my prayers and give me everything I want! And, You have a horrible heart for letting the violence that fills the earth continue! Are you asleep? I'm not saying that I don't ever question what God is doing...or not doing. I ask my God why on a regular basis. Sometimes I see the answer; sometimes I don't. But I'd rather trust He's doing the right thing than to take matters in my own hands and trust that I will do it right.
And then there is Jesus. Historically, even in extra-biblical accounts, come to Earth where He worked miracles and rose from the dead. Why? Because God wanted once and for all to fix the very sin problem Bell so poignantly sees. But not by making us mind Him. By experiencing life with us in order to bring us into a kingdom where this stuff doesn't happen any more. If, as Christians, we believe this world isn't our home, that where Christ is is where we belong, then it makes sense this isn't going to be any paradise. People choose to do evil. People, like the captain of the ferry that killed the teenagers, choose to be irresponsible and take risks with the lives of others. We live in an imperfect world, and we, imperfect as we are, don't have the wisdom or the power to change the hearts of evil men. God cares enough, is involved enough, with His entire creation that He stepped into it and died for its redemption. He had a personal vendetta with evil. A squaring off with sin. And the root of it all is pride. Whether religious (I am so good God must love me and answer my every whim) or intellectual (I'm too smart for this religion stuff), pride that we know more about things than the God Who created everything will trip us up. Pride makes us stomp our feet and shake our fist in the face of the God Who gave His very life to save us from the real issue: ourselves.
Little birds who call and the animals on the hillside are just as evanescent as we are. We deal with death and disease here on Earth. If God only sees this...or wound it up and walked away, I agree with Bell, that would be a sham of a god. But the record shows He doesn't feel that way. The record shows God cares about the same injustices that rile us--make our anger roil. What a small and petty God Who would dismiss our heinous misdeeds with the wave of His hand. The thing is, God couldn't. He won't fix our actions and make up puppets. That is a lesser god, too. But He did offer a way to fix our hearts. Walked with us to heal our bodies in order to show us He has power to overcome our most evil and our most covert of sins. Died--bled out--to show how important mankind is to Him. What more could He do? God isn't Santa, sitting in the skies checking out who is naughty and nice, and giving the best gifts to the nicest kids. God is a Father Who birthed His children to lead them home to Him forever. He is the Sovereign over all His creation, dwelling in incomprehensible light in a realm vastly superior to Earth, with a knowledge of all things greatly surpassing anything we think we know, with power to create and power to crush. God would not be God if He thought as small as we do. I don't know why bad things happen. I get why that crushes the heart of Mr. Bell. But I do know the heart of my Father--knowing it better every day--is that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, those called to His purposes (Romans 8).
God is big enough to take our most profound questions. He isn't intimidated by our shaking fists or silent to our wearied hearts. He could be a God Who doesn't care. That wouldn't make Him any less God, though. Were He to choose to spin the Earth and walk away. Our anger wouldn't be any more or less justified, since it would be what God chose. But we know, from history even, that God isn't like that. That God hates religious posturing and adherence to manmade rules. The life and death of Jesus proves that God doesn't look away, but is so intricately aware of our needs that He came to save the little birds who call.
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