I heard a story yesterday about a particularly naive young man who seems to think that everything that happens in his life is God’s fault. He’s quite sincere in his beliefs, but just immature in understanding the dynamic tension between God’s sovereignty and our accountability for choices we make.
His friends arrived early in the morning to pick him up and take him to PDX for an early 6:00am flight…he was moving from Oregon to the midwest to start a new job, and new life. When his friends arrived at his house at 4:00am, he wasn’t awake. After rousing him, they discovered he had not yet packed. After packing suitcases & loading the car, he insisted on taking a shower. Finally, they reached the airport 35 min. before his plane’s departure and dropped him at the curb to run for it…but received his phone call halfway back home that he had missed his flight. Dutifully, they turned around and went back to the airport to pick him up. After getting in the car, disappointed and trying to make sense of what had happened, the guy says “I guess God has a different plan for my life.”
I think God gets blamed for all kinds of crap that’s our fault…for one reason or another, we sometimes have trouble taking responsibility and humbling ourselves. It’s also just plain Bad Theology. Scripture certainly paints a picture of Almighty God as being sovereign, and often thwarting the plans & wills of people who oppose His. However, it’s easy to take these golden nuggets of truth and melt them all down into a lazy, entitled theology that pictures God as a puppet-master who controls all decisions and outcomes for all people of all times. That’s just simply not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible….the God of reality…is the one who is deeply involved in our lives and decisions, yet allows us to make our own choices. We choose all kinds of things all day every day…involving matters that are trivial as well as matters that are incredibly important. The miracle of God in us is not that he makes us senseless drones to serve His wishes…but that He invites into relationship with Him, to partner with Him in bringing His light and truth and love into the world through our lives. Often, this happens through our mistakes/sins…but that doesn’t mean that the mistakes belong to God. GOD’S WILL IS NOT TIED TO OUR FAITHFULNESS….OR LACK THEREOF. Thank God!
Here’s a good model I use for walking out of stupid decisions I make, and getting back on track with God:
1) Acknowledge that I screwed-up
2) Ask forgiveness…agree with God’s way
3) Admit my screw-up to any other people who were involved or impacted by it. Ask forgiveness
4) Resolve to follow Jesus, focusing on my relationship with Him in the midst of my daily life & decisions.
5) Repeat the next time I screw-up
