Curious FaithEsimerkki

My Tidy God

The brokenness and devastation on this planet doesn’t fit into a tidy, manmade box any more than a powerful God does. The good and evil and the battle that rages between simply feels bad. And, we can’t fix it. So, the question becomes, if He can, then why doesn’t He?

It’s interesting how we neuter God of His power when He doesn’t always apply it to what we believe is best … to what we believe is good. And, if He doesn’t apply His capabilities in ways that we want, I think over time, we forget that He still carries that power.

When we see enough hard things in this world, maybe some piece of us decides that maybe God just can’t handle things. So, we lose our curiosity about Him. We lose our hope. Eventually, we don’t really believe that “all things are possible” like the Bible says. A curious faith in a limitless God we might have had as children is replaced with an explainable faith bound by limited possibility as adults.

If God’s power doesn’t address what we want, then somewhere along the line, we decide that maybe it just isn’t actually real. Before long, life gets lived out from a place where everything can be expected. And, the things that can’t are often beyond repair. Marriages break, cancer steals life, children suffer disease, finances drain, and our spirits are crushed. The God who could do something must not really be able to fix those things, after all. Worry, fear, wandering, waiting, and pain become staples that cripple us from living a hopeful life full of anticipation. Sure, there are still good things along the way, but the hallmark of our faith becomes more about managed survival than hope-filled thriving. We are content to live status quo instead of a life on the edge of limitless possibility. Life is a predictable journey that very rarely surprises anyone, least of all ourselves.

If God really is powerful, if He really is good, then why can’t I see it? Maybe we miss what could be right in front of us.

Perhaps, it was that I had already lost so much and was looking for hope? I don’t know. What I do know is that once the thought occurred to me that God was presently arranging the cosmos before me, I wanted to know what else He could do. My curiosity about Him began to grow, and I was hungry for the God who moves planets and mends broken hearts. Because, if He can cover the moon, then the brokenness of this world pales in comparison.