God sometimes allows suffering because we wouldn't submit. And he loves us too much to let us harden the wrong way.
Jeremiah 18:1-17
The Potter and the Clay
1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. 7 If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, 10 but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.
11 “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’”
12 But the people replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.”
13 So this is what the Lord says:
“Has anyone ever heard of such a thing,
even among the pagan nations?
My virgin daughter Israel
has done something terrible!
14 Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon?
Do the cold streams flowing from those distant mountains ever run dry?
15 But my people are not so reliable, for they have deserted me;
they burn incense to worthless idols.
They have stumbled off the ancient highways
and walk in muddy paths.
16 Therefore, their land will become desolate,
a monument to their stupidity.
All who pass by will be astonished
and will shake their heads in amazement.
17 I will scatter my people before their enemies
as the east wind scatters dust.
And in all their trouble I will turn my back on them
and refuse to notice their distress.”
God reminded Jeremiah and the people that he could and would shape them as he liked. The note in my mom's life application bible says this:
"As the potter molded or shaped a clay pot on the potter's wheel, defects often appeared. The potter had power over the clay, to permit the defects to remain or reshape the pot. Likewise, God had power to reshape the nation to conform to his purposes. Our strategy should not be to become mindless and passive- one aspect of clay- but to be willing and receptive to God's impact on us. As we yield to God, he begins reshaping us into valuable vessels."
So out of his love for us, he destroys our pride by destroying what we cling to. The suffering sometimes is because we (either literally or with our actions) told God not to waste His breath- that we were going to do whatever we wanted despite what He said. I love the word it uses in the NLT. It says "stupid". I don't normally use that word, but it makes perfect bold sense here. We look at the people of Judah and can easily say "Look how stupid they are. God told them to repent, but they told him to not waste his breath. They declared themselves a lost cause towards God so that they could do what they wanted." We say that, then we realize all the times we have forgotten God, or not wanted to pray to him, or not felt up to reading today. And we realize how much we have forgotten his power and worth. He is our potter and He loves us. So if he has to destroy us before our hearts harden, he will do so. Judah must soon repent, or the clay will harden the wrong way. Suffering brings us back to Him.
January 21, 2010
January 19, 2010
A Divine Turn-Around Amidst our "Crisis"
photo from Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1954087_2025842,00.html)
James 3:13-18
Two Kinds of Wisdom
"13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."
I think we've got it all wrong.
Why is there suffering?
Because without it we'd never be humble enough
to get ourselves to come to God.
You don't understand the poverty of the poor
'til you've had a bit of poverty of your own.
it might take you losing a house
for you to realize that a house
wasn't what you really needed.
I think we are blind.
To just how selfish we really are.
We don't think ourselves as very selfish
until we see disaster on the television
and don't stop to do anything about it.
But for those people on the TV...
the disaster is not just the morning news.
It's in their backyard and fronyard and both side yards and,
because of the earthquake (whether emotional or physical),
they no longer even have a living room to put a TV in.
You see, until we get a taste of what it's really like, how could we understand?
I'm not saying we shouldn't try to though:)
So. You see, I think we've got this all wrong.
This economic crisis we're in
might just be a divine opportunity.
We're being forced to decide:
If i have only two pennies, will
I share one
or both?
Will i give him one, when he really needs both?
If i only have ten dollars in my bank account for the rest of the month,
will i still give God my 10% to remind myself
that it's already his and show him that i am still faithful in the good and the bad?
So I think we've got this all wrong.
We've irresponsible gorged ourselves on luxuries and now we complain that dad took away our toys or our cell phone.
That's what happens when we're consciously irresponsible.
You get a time-out.
So let's rethink this thing.
Let's not throw a tantrum and let our pride get in the way.
Selfish ambition has wreaked havoc for too long.
If you have two pennies and you're asked to share.
Give both.
If he needs a coat, give him your coat
hat
and mittens.
But if he needs both, and you have both, give him both.
I think we're going to see a beautiful turn-around.
It's amazing what love and a taste of poverty can do.
January 4, 2010
He Chose Me. Not the Other way Around.
There’s a love I’ve fallen in love with
A love that I can come back to
Whether I’ve loved it or not.
Whether I’ve thought about it that day or not.
This love is forgiving.
Ever-open.
I could run to it after years of running away and it’d smile every time.
I am thankful for that love.
Unlike it,
Sometimes I forget that I love it.
I forget what it feels like to love it back.
I get stubborn.
Easily angered.
I pull the life-didn’t-go-my-way card.
And still, it loves me.
I could say that it loves me back.
But that wouldn’t be accurate.
Because I don’t always love it.
Therefore it can’t exactly “love me back” when I don’t love it first.
Because it first loved me.
It chose me. Not the other way around.
I don’t fully understand this love.
I’m just thankful for it.
I don’t fully grasp its purpose in loving me.
It just loves.
I think we as humans are so quick to resist love. Especially True Love.
We see it’s purity and lack of condition.
And in our pride we turn away
Because we know we will never be capable of loving it back as it loves us.
Or we don’t want our wounds to heal. Which doesn’t make sense at all cause we go to doctors on nearly every occasion begging them to heal our physical wounds, while at the same time we leave our emotional wounds gaping and unnursed.
We turn to other unwhole people to see if they can heal them. Boyfriends. Girlfriends. Parents. Siblings. Friends.
Trying to fill the damage caused by the past, hiding from ourselves the fact that
If we just went to the one true love,
Our wounds would heal forever.
Our trial would be joy
Our pain just a fraction of the reward we have to come.
Have you noticed that when we’re in love,
We can go through nearly anything if it means we preserve or save or remain with the thing or person we love?
I at one time thought I’d be able to endure pain like that of Paul when he was persecuted and thrown in jail,
But as I come ever closer to being at odds with the government, my knees get feeble and my faith gets weak.
Because my love is small. My love for True Love is quite too small.
You see. The confusing part is
You can’t make yourself love true love.
It doesn’t work that way. It chose you. Not the other way around.
It wanted to know you first. Not the other way around.
You have to ask it to help you love it. You see why we resist it: sometimes we are too proud to ask for help.
But the further you run the more you realize you’re going the wrong direction I guess. And it draws you to it.
So people ask: why is there pain in the world? Why is the world fallen?
Well solution number one: bad choices. Sin. Desire for more than we can handle. For more than we ought. Desire for things that taste good while denying what we know to be the only true and good thing. That’s reason number one.
But reason number two:
Because as for myself, if I didn’t have pain, I’d forget why I needed Him. I’d fake myself into thinking that I was whole. We become pretty good at it, don’t we?
You see. I think we’ve gotten so good at lying to ourselves and letting others lie to us. I don’t understand this.
We go on day by day, trying to do life on our own, and we fake ourselves into thinking that we’ve got it all under control.
Things go well.
And we begin to forget that we’re not the ones in control. Yes we have the power to make minute choices.
But in the grand scheme of things
Pain is the reality check.
Pain gets us back on track.
Pain
Reminds me that I’m not the one in control.
And that I can’t do it on my own.
The pattern of calm, storm, longer calm, storm is to get our attention.
See I think this is a problem in society: that we all say we’re “good”.
“How are you?” “Oh I’m good thanks… doing well”
Maybe you are good. maybe you are doing well.
But what if we’re not? Well. We lie.
Because no one wants to hear that you’re not good. and you want them to hear what they want to hear.
I’m not saying to go around showing off your gashes to the masses. Not everyone is going to have the band-aid of grace. But just that we shouldn’t be afraid or slow to tell the truth.
Have you ever had the moment where someone asks you how you are doing, and when you truly think about it, you don’t have an answer.
I don’t know how I am doing.
Well for myself. It mainly happens when I’m too busy. I’ve lied to myself for so long or forced myself to not think about it for so long that I am rotting away spiritually. And I don’t even realize it.
I hate lying to myself. Especially when I don’t even notice I’m doing it.
Get a load of this: This love. It never lies.
It doesn’t cheat on you. Or ‘forget’ to tell you something. It’s true. One hundred percent money-back guarantee.
(If you notice, we can’t even love ourselves correctly- seeing as we lie to ourselves all the time about how we really are feeling.)
But this love never lies. And it considers others above itself.
I was reading a book where a man pointed out that when he was in love, he didn’t think about his own desires or needs for days. All he could think about was the one he loved.
Well True Love is like that all the time. It thinks about me all the time. It thinks about you all the time. Therefore I should be quick to fall back in love with it.
This man also said that he felt that selfless love was the one thing God didn’t curse. The fact that he could consider another person above himself fully was a gift.
I want to fall in that type of love.
That’s the type of love God deserves. I’m just so bad at giving it to Him.
Yet I’ll continue to ask that He puts that desire in my heart- the desire to love Him.
Because, for some unexplainable reason, He chose me. Not the other way around.
And He chose humanity.
I don’t understand it yet and I’m not sure I ever will.
But I guess that’s what faith is for. I am sure that no matter what I do, True Love will keep on loving me and I will continue loving it. It’ll keep leaving me messages even when I don’t answer on purpose. I’ll run home to it and it will welcome me home. And when I am unfaithful and return home it will still be there. That’s something we barely ever find in another person. When you do though, keep it. And then thank the One who first showed us how to love unconditionally. That’s a love I can fall in love with. And stay happily married with forever. Cause divorce is not an option. He chose me. Not the other way around.
A love that I can come back to
Whether I’ve loved it or not.
Whether I’ve thought about it that day or not.
This love is forgiving.
Ever-open.
I could run to it after years of running away and it’d smile every time.
I am thankful for that love.
Unlike it,
Sometimes I forget that I love it.
I forget what it feels like to love it back.
I get stubborn.
Easily angered.
I pull the life-didn’t-go-my-way card.
And still, it loves me.
I could say that it loves me back.
But that wouldn’t be accurate.
Because I don’t always love it.
Therefore it can’t exactly “love me back” when I don’t love it first.
Because it first loved me.
It chose me. Not the other way around.
I don’t fully understand this love.
I’m just thankful for it.
I don’t fully grasp its purpose in loving me.
It just loves.
I think we as humans are so quick to resist love. Especially True Love.
We see it’s purity and lack of condition.
And in our pride we turn away
Because we know we will never be capable of loving it back as it loves us.
Or we don’t want our wounds to heal. Which doesn’t make sense at all cause we go to doctors on nearly every occasion begging them to heal our physical wounds, while at the same time we leave our emotional wounds gaping and unnursed.
We turn to other unwhole people to see if they can heal them. Boyfriends. Girlfriends. Parents. Siblings. Friends.
Trying to fill the damage caused by the past, hiding from ourselves the fact that
If we just went to the one true love,
Our wounds would heal forever.
Our trial would be joy
Our pain just a fraction of the reward we have to come.
Have you noticed that when we’re in love,
We can go through nearly anything if it means we preserve or save or remain with the thing or person we love?
I at one time thought I’d be able to endure pain like that of Paul when he was persecuted and thrown in jail,
But as I come ever closer to being at odds with the government, my knees get feeble and my faith gets weak.
Because my love is small. My love for True Love is quite too small.
You see. The confusing part is
You can’t make yourself love true love.
It doesn’t work that way. It chose you. Not the other way around.
It wanted to know you first. Not the other way around.
You have to ask it to help you love it. You see why we resist it: sometimes we are too proud to ask for help.
But the further you run the more you realize you’re going the wrong direction I guess. And it draws you to it.
So people ask: why is there pain in the world? Why is the world fallen?
Well solution number one: bad choices. Sin. Desire for more than we can handle. For more than we ought. Desire for things that taste good while denying what we know to be the only true and good thing. That’s reason number one.
But reason number two:
Because as for myself, if I didn’t have pain, I’d forget why I needed Him. I’d fake myself into thinking that I was whole. We become pretty good at it, don’t we?
You see. I think we’ve gotten so good at lying to ourselves and letting others lie to us. I don’t understand this.
We go on day by day, trying to do life on our own, and we fake ourselves into thinking that we’ve got it all under control.
Things go well.
And we begin to forget that we’re not the ones in control. Yes we have the power to make minute choices.
But in the grand scheme of things
Pain is the reality check.
Pain gets us back on track.
Pain
Reminds me that I’m not the one in control.
And that I can’t do it on my own.
The pattern of calm, storm, longer calm, storm is to get our attention.
See I think this is a problem in society: that we all say we’re “good”.
“How are you?” “Oh I’m good thanks… doing well”
Maybe you are good. maybe you are doing well.
But what if we’re not? Well. We lie.
Because no one wants to hear that you’re not good. and you want them to hear what they want to hear.
I’m not saying to go around showing off your gashes to the masses. Not everyone is going to have the band-aid of grace. But just that we shouldn’t be afraid or slow to tell the truth.
Have you ever had the moment where someone asks you how you are doing, and when you truly think about it, you don’t have an answer.
I don’t know how I am doing.
Well for myself. It mainly happens when I’m too busy. I’ve lied to myself for so long or forced myself to not think about it for so long that I am rotting away spiritually. And I don’t even realize it.
I hate lying to myself. Especially when I don’t even notice I’m doing it.
Get a load of this: This love. It never lies.
It doesn’t cheat on you. Or ‘forget’ to tell you something. It’s true. One hundred percent money-back guarantee.
(If you notice, we can’t even love ourselves correctly- seeing as we lie to ourselves all the time about how we really are feeling.)
But this love never lies. And it considers others above itself.
I was reading a book where a man pointed out that when he was in love, he didn’t think about his own desires or needs for days. All he could think about was the one he loved.
Well True Love is like that all the time. It thinks about me all the time. It thinks about you all the time. Therefore I should be quick to fall back in love with it.
This man also said that he felt that selfless love was the one thing God didn’t curse. The fact that he could consider another person above himself fully was a gift.
I want to fall in that type of love.
That’s the type of love God deserves. I’m just so bad at giving it to Him.
Yet I’ll continue to ask that He puts that desire in my heart- the desire to love Him.
Because, for some unexplainable reason, He chose me. Not the other way around.
And He chose humanity.
I don’t understand it yet and I’m not sure I ever will.
But I guess that’s what faith is for. I am sure that no matter what I do, True Love will keep on loving me and I will continue loving it. It’ll keep leaving me messages even when I don’t answer on purpose. I’ll run home to it and it will welcome me home. And when I am unfaithful and return home it will still be there. That’s something we barely ever find in another person. When you do though, keep it. And then thank the One who first showed us how to love unconditionally. That’s a love I can fall in love with. And stay happily married with forever. Cause divorce is not an option. He chose me. Not the other way around.
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