Let me tell you something about life that you may not know: It’s complicated! It’s a lot like when I ordered a special chair for my desk at work. I needed something that provided excellent lumbar support because I am challenged with herniated discs. I found one online and had it delivered to my job. In my mind, I saw the chair showing up in a box and all I needed to do was open the box and the finished product would be ready for me. But, as you know, that is not the way it works. The chair came in about hundred different pieces and I wanted to cry. I am not mechanically minded at all and if there is a way to mess up something really simple I WILL find it!
I elicited the help of a male co-worker because Lord knows all of my girlfriends at work suffer from the same mechanical deficiency. He put it together, but he did it with the help of the instructions. Yes, you know the wonderful instructions that the manufacturers send and it’s partially written in Chinese. Apparently someone in China tried to interpret it into English but half of the words are missing. Sentences say things like,” Place item 2 item 1” What??? Where is the verb?? Suffice it to say the task took longer and complications abounded. I think it took him about 2-3 hours to assemble the chair, something that very easily would have taken me all day. Let’s just say, putting chairs together is a complicated issue.
This is true in our life as well. In God’s sovereignty, He opens doors, shuts doors, connects or disconnects us from relationships, and this is all done with little explanation to us most of the time. Sometimes the verbs are missing from the instructions. Or sometimes it seems like the instructions are in Chinese. It’s complicated. Even if He tried to explain it to us we probably could not understand. Our ability to understand is hindered by the constraints of our limited thinking. The cry of a post-Christ world shuns ideas about God really controlling all things. The anthem of every song, movie or media outlet seems to resonate with themes of self-sufficiency and that all elusive “American Dream” that all of us chase. We believe we can work hard enough and our dreams will come true. But what happens when God says no? What happens when our dreams go up in smoke or a relationship ended that we thought He orchestrated? What about when everything in our life falls apart while we were following God’s last instructions to us? What do we do then?
Do we throw our Christianity away because we don’t understand God? Or do we dig our heels in and hang on for dear life to God? It’s a question we all will face in our lives. What will we do with this God we don’t always understand? I faced this dilemma multiple times throughout my journey with God. I thought He gave me clear instructions on a direction in my life so I obeyed and started aligning my life with it. And then out of nowhere the whole idea crumbled and I stood watching it fall into the dark abyss of confusion. It seemed I took my staff in my hand and commanded the Red Sea to part and it didn’t…….and I didn’t know what to do with that kind of pain.
We have to remember that God doesn’t think the same way we do. (For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8). While we are blessed with access to some of God’s thoughts because we now have the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit is living in us (if we made the decision to receive Christ), we will still only know in part. The Holy Spirit’s job is to communicate information to us that is appropriate for us to know in that moment. Sometimes we aren’t ready for more revelation, especially if we have yet to fully grasp things He already told us. Why would God show us more when we don’t even understand things He already said to us?
Another parallel thought running through my mind is that misunderstanding of God’s ways is partially due to our negligence of living in the Spirit. What does that mean anyway?? If you are a christian, you entered this world twice. Once through physical birth when your mother pushed you into this world through pain and agony, and a second time when your spirit became alive when the Holy Spirit entered into your being. At that moment, you became a NEW CREATION. That means you can’t go on living the same way you used to because that person died and now the spiritual trumps the natural. Most of us understand that in theory and we apply it to our lives to help us extinguish the flames of the BIG sins in our life. You know, the ones like lying, stealing, coveting (dare I mention murder? – I’m hoping most people don’t struggle with murdering others) but we don’t always see our stinky thought life as sinful. We don’t realize that while we may be able to stop the BIG sins, we are still struggling in our thought life about God and other people.
I struggled for years with thoughts that God might be holding out on me. I found myself always suspicious that all of my faith would prove to be in vain because He would let me down. Living in my old stinky, dead thought life almost drive to the brink of insanity. I honestly felt like I could be diagnosed with being bi-polar some days. The truth is I struggled because I didn’t live in my renewed mind every day. I flipped back and forth between the old me and the new me. Romans 8:6 says, “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” Some days life and peace ruled my day, and sometimes depression and anxiety won. But the truth is, it was my choice. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
So life is complicated. God’s destiny for us is probably complicated. If we try and understand it through that old stinky mindset that died when we received the Holy Spirit then we will live in perpetual frustration and confusion, which by the way is not a bi-product of living in the spirit. As Christians, our lives should be full of peace and joy, regardless of what is going on in them. The people in our lives should be incredibly impressed with our poise under pressure and the grace that we walk in. So what if it looks like our lives are falling apart, our confidence assurance in God should ooze through our everyday life and actions that OTHERS in our lives are chasing down this God we live for. That’s the point right?? To bring our Father glory in every situation and to see others come to know Him the way we do. The point is not to UNDERSTAND everything in our lives so that we can live at this supernatural level everyday- but it’s living at this wonderful place with God even when we DON’T understand that brings Him the most glory.
