Experiencing God's Curiosity and Compassion by Chuck DeGroatSample

Who in the world told you that?

My mom was bewildered. I’d arrived home in tears, convinced of the story I’d been told by the bully on the bus. “You parents don’t love you,” he had said. “Plus, I know you’re adopted.” I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but it sounded like I wasn’t wanted, that I didn’t belong.

The truth is my parents had tried for fourteen years to have me. And while they weren’t perfect parents, there was no doubt I was loved. Yet, on that bus, my world turned upside down. In a moment, I’d bought a different story. In a moment, my heart was crushed.

When I recall that story, I find myself growing in compassion for Adam and Eve. I slow down and feel the weight of the slithering serpent’s question: “Did God really say?” The serpent – a master gas lighter – suggested to Adam and Eve that God wasn’t truthful, that they weren’t enough, that God was holding out on them. The slithering serpent - the bully on the bus – told a counterfeit story.

And we’ve been listening ever since. The enslaved Israelites in Egypt heard the lies of the bully Pharoah who told them they’d never amount to anything more. The captive exiles in Babylon were told there was no one coming for them. The first followers of Jesus were told he wasn’t a good enough Messiah for them. They’ll always be bullying gas lighters wherever you find yourself. Maybe you’ve heard a counterfeit story from a bully in your life.

And yet God’s second curious and compassionate question invites us to consider the story we’ve been sold as a lie. “Who told you?” God asks. In other words, who whispered that lie to you? Who offered you a cheap alternative to worth, belonging, and purpose? God’s question doesn’t shame us. It invites us to deep reflection. Somewhere along the way we lost the plotline. Somewhere along the way connection was severed. God wants to help you discover when and how, so that you can chart your course to reconnection.

You were designed for dignity, made in love, created for purpose. That’s your birthright as an image-bearer of God. But there will always be those whose voices echo the ancient serpent. They’ll tell you that you’re not enough, that you don’t belong, and that you don’t matter. But listen more closely for God’s kind voice. Who told you those lies?

And listen even more closely for the whispers of Eden too. “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children,” writes the apostle Paul (Romans 8:16). Because deep in your heart and perhaps even sprinkled through your story, are echoes of your original goodness.