A few days ago we had to seek shelter from a storm that was threatening to deliver tornado's to our area. I found myself, along with my family, in the midst of a large crowd in a public store. Due to the storm everyone in the store was moved to a central location where we all stood around hearing nothing but an occasional grumble of thunder and knowing nothing of what was going on outside.
It was actually kind of a strange experience, standing there surrounded by strangers, hiding out from a dangerous storm but unable to see or hear any signs of the storm. I've spent many years living in tornado alley and have passed more hours than I care to think of hiding from severe storms, all of which I was well aware of the storm raging because it can be heard. That wasn't the case on this most recent experience.
But it's not the storm or even the time we stood there waiting for whatever might come next that has me writing this today. No, it was something that happened as we hurried toward the center of the store and two other unrelated things that has me writing today.
As we, and everyone in the store, made our way to the designated place when that storm raged around the store, there was a man that was making his way to the same place we were. In fact there were a lot of people hurrying through the store just as we were, trying to reach the safest area of the store while someone kept announcing over the loudspeaker that everyone needed to seek shelter in that part of the store.
So there we were, a sea of people, strangers, all flowing in the same direction, seeking shelter from something that might or might not prove to be a horrible experience, and I found myself surrounded by a handful of kids and this one man. The man was talking to no one and to everyone all at the same time, saying something to the effect of 'it's okay. Don't worry. God's got this.' He was kind of just repeating it over and over and then he addressed the kids saying, 'God won't let anything happen to us. Right, kids?'
I have no idea if what he was saying was reassuring to anyone or not. None of the kids answered him, in fact no one answered him. Everyone was just focused on what they were doing.
I, on the other hand, was hearing all that he was saying in a in-one-ear-and-out-the-other kind of way. That is until he said that bit about God won't let anything happen to us "right, kids?". I suppose I should have just let that pass too but without thought or intent I responded with, ''don't count on it. There are plenty of people He let things happen to."
I have no idea if the man heard me or not, no idea if the kids heard me. It was just something I said without thinking about whether or not I should say it but as I said it I thought of the apostles that God let something happen to, of the two people that were killed not very long ago in another storm. Later I wondered if any of the people that God appointed to die at a less than peaceful and perfect time ever thought 'God won't let anything happen to us."
And so that moment passed. Just a brief span of time. The storm came and went with little effect and the days moved on. I didn't even tell my husband about that brief experience in the midst of our seeking shelter from a storm. It was just one of those moments that happens and life makes it seem less than important.
But then...
Yesterday my husband told me about a conversation he had with someone. It was one of those idealic Arminian conversations where someone believes so strongly in what they are saying but they are overlooking what Scripture says to hold to that belief. Someone had recently told my husband that someone else just needed to live for God. For that person, and so many more, that seems to be such a simple statement. Just live for God.
It's the general thought process taught in most 'churches'. The belief held by most 'christians'.
Just live for God.
So simple.
So easy.
Nothing to it. Right?
Right?
If it's that simple...why aren't more people, more 'christians' doing that very thing? Why aren't they denying themselves and living for God in such a way that our country, our world, isn't what it is now?
The conversation my husband had went right along with one I had with a relative not all that long ago. It's was another of those just choose God/Jesus type conversations.
It's such a simple solution. And I fully agree that Christ is the answer. So...why is it that so many can't just make that simple choice to live for God or choose Jesus? Why do so many struggle with issues that shouldn't even be an issue at all?
Not long ago I saw a snippet of a televised preacher talking about how 'you' are struggling so hard with some issue in 'your' life that you can't seem to handle at the moment, of how that issue will most likely be forgotten by next year, maybe even tomorrow, but it's an issue God is not struggling with at all.
I suppose there was more to that speech but I didn't hear it. What I do know is that what I heard fits right in with my experience in the storm and with the two conversations my husband and I had recently. It's a 'God's got this' kind of speech.
But the problem with all of these things is that each one is nothing more than a delusion, people living in a dream world.
Yes, 'God's got this'.
Yes, we should 'live for God' or rather Christ.
But...
What about the verses that say things like:
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him...1 Corinthians 7:17
Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass... Job 14:5-7
Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? 22What ifGod, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? Romans 9:21-22
So in order for one to take comfort in 'God won't let anything happen to us' means one must disregard all of human life and history that shows that 'God HAD this...whatever this might be...from the very beginning and He chose to save some and to not save some. One must also disregard that God ordained our days before we were born, he appointed our time on earth and our time to die, including the way we will go. One must live in the dream world that 'God' has the sole purpose of saving us from everything.
And the idea that one must only choose Jesus or live for God is just as much of a dream world because one must disregard the Scriptures to do so. There are so many Scriptures that prove one simply can't chose to live for God but let's just go with the three above. If God has assigned each to their life...how can one chose to live for God if God doesn't assign them to do so? How would a person make that choice and then proceed to do what God himself has not ordained? And if the Potter does what He wants with the clay...then how can the clay simply choose to be something other than what the Potter makes them to be? How can they chose to live for God if God Himself has created them for destruction?
The only way is if they are living in a dream world of their own making. They choose the comforting side of 'christianity', making it what they want it to be rather than what it really is.
Sometimes though...sometimes I think they are best left in their comforting dream world. Had God not chosen to spare those in that store as we hid from that storm than it was probably best that that man believed 'God won't let anything happen to us' with his very last breath and that he gave his delusional comfort to the kids around him so that they, too, might find comfort in his dream.
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