Who is God?

Worry and stress. Two words that I would guess could describe most people’s lives. As Christians though, have we really thought about what this means to our view of God? “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives. Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.” We’re basically telling God that it’s ok to sin because our circumstances are more exceptional than Him. I can remember all the junk that I’ve been through in my life and the surprising thing is this: during my most troubling times was the times that I was closest to God and I had peace that I didn’t quite understand. As my life started to mellow out, I slowly drifted away from my relationship with God. I was still a follower but I was not as passionate. I’ve noticed since then that stress and worry have been a constant in my life. Over the past few months, I’ve slowly taken steps back toward the passion I once had and I’ve experienced a peace in my life that I can’t explain. While I probably have every human right in the world to be angry with Sarah, I’m not. I hope that she finds what she needs in God and is able to mend her heart.

An excitement for life has been reawakened within me. Just six months ago I was struggling with depression and fatigue, to the point that I sought medical help. But I’ve surrounded myself with godly men who have spoken Truth into my life and I’ve found that the depression was centered around a selfish core of hurt and pain. I don’t think that sadness and pain are bad things, but when they consume our thoughts and lives to the exclusion of all else, they become self-destructive.

I think part of what has helped me to see past a great deal of myself was a renewed realization that life really is short. I’m reading through Crazy Love and Francis Chan spoke about a concept that I’d lost. Eternity exists outside of time and it’s something that is extremely hard for our human minds to fathom. Solomon compared our lives to a vapor, something that is here one moment and gone the next. Tim McGraw wrote a song entitled, “Live Like You were Dying.” Do we truly live our lives in that way? Or do we try to cushion ourselves against future failures?

Again, I think this comes back to how we view God. Can we accept that sometimes the trouble in our lives is God’s plan? And that maybe He’s wanting us to show other people the peace that can exist in the midst of it. And that other people, or us, having good times is God wanting us to show them how, as followers, we can be selfless. Do we see God as the Creator of the universe and whose will is final? Or do we see Him as some pushover that exists to make us happy and do what we want?