January 17, 2014

From Jim McGuiggan... Yes, No, Yes, No


Yes, No, Yes, No

A severely neurotic person constantly wanting to be assured that he/she is loved and wanted, constantly wanting assurance despite the fact that the one that says he/she loves them has invested years in them—that person’s a burden. A beloved burden no doubt, but a burden just the same. The years of "being there" aren’t enough, the lover’s constant reiteration that he/she will always be there isn’t enough. Who has difficulty seeing that this would be tedious—a wearing experience? I suppose we’d finally acknowledge that such a poor soul is sick. It would still be a burden but at least, if we believe that the constant harping is a symptom of neurosis, it would make it a bit easier to bear.
Does it wear on God that we must have ceaseless assurance that he is for us? It’s hardly surprising that the assurance we want we want in the form of specific prayers answered or favours granted or specific answers to specific questions. If these don’t come (or don’t come as often as we ask for them or don’t come in a form that we recognise) the vaporous, ghostly doubts begin to take more solid forms. Any other form of assurance lacks credibility. Biblical texts aren’t enough, even biblical texts about God’s redeeming work in and as Jesus Christ.
Does it wear God down that when he reminds us that he has given us his very own heart, his Son—that we say (in various ways), "Yes, I know about the Christ and that was good of you, and that helps, but...I need more than that"? Is that not an awful saying? Is there not in it the implication, "Yes, it’s true that you have given me your own heart but that isn’t enough"?
I don’t doubt that there are some intellectual difficulties and puzzles attached to God and how he relates to us (is that surprising?) but people have a hard time believing that our sin affects our ability to think (compare Romans 1:21). Those who think that a person with a huge lower lip, shaped by a magnificent pout, thinks well at that moment—they need to think again. God help us, it isn’t only the ill people that can’t be assured; the narcissistic among us have the similar symptoms without the chemical imbalance. We must not only love them, we must love them in the way that they have determined they should be loved—if love is to have any "real" meaning, don’t you know.
Yes, but humans are sinned against and sinful, and it might be hard for them to believe that One so exalted and holy would want them or could go on bearing with them. This is certainly true, for there’s no doubt that hosts of people have difficulty relying on the love of God. We’re sin-sick, aren’t we? The explanation for such a condition is complex, but obviously our own inability to be completely trustworthy shapes our view of God and others. And our numerous experiences in life with many that promised with blood-red earnestness that they had come to stay and then walked off never to return—that has shaped us. The problem doesn’t lie in God—it never did! In our bitter and cynical moments we call all men liars—or at least, we think their "talk is cheap"—and it’s in such a spirit that we glance in God’s direction. Then, in addition, if our pet projects don’t prosper despite our fervent prayers or some major crisis isn’t averted—again, despite fervent prayers—our cynicism spreads heavenward. And that spirit gets around. Our not-hard-to-understand disappointment becomes a whine and before long everyone around us is whining in support.
"Blessed are the moaners, for they shall be heard."
"There’s no need to be sarcastic!" I wouldn’t dream of it and, more to the point, neither would God! At least, not about people that have something to beat on God’s chest about. As for the rest of us, maybe a bit of well chosen sarcasm would get through where being too "understanding" only gets a whine in return. It’s never good for a poor high-strung soul for us to take their side against God. It’s perfectly acceptable and understandable that we sympathise with them in their pain and help alleviate it but to weaken their relationship with God by making God out to be "the ultimate child-abuser" as one writer put it—this isn’t part of our obligation one to another. I think I recall a glorious man do a deeply distressed friend a huge favour by "strengthening him in God." Yes, I’m sure I came across that somewhere.
I know that God knows very well that we’re sinful and that we make sinners out of one another and as a consequence we can’t see him very well—because it’s the pure in heart that see God and we’re a long way from that—don’t you think? But God incarnate, in and as Jesus Christ, found our lack of trust something to marvel at (Mark 6:6 and numerous other texts that move in that direction). I’m not suggesting that therefore he wants nothing more to do with us. Far from it! No, it makes him want to cure us! But we need cured! It’s an ugly world that looks at One that has eternally pledged himself in love to us, and with a slight curl in the lip we say, "Well...maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t."
However we explain our ceaseless demand for assurance, in the end, the heart of God, seen in and as Jesus Christ, is acknowledged and blithely passed by as if it were simply another good thing among many that God has done for us. Other gifts will surely persuade us that God really cares for us—we think. But if his giving us himself in and as Jesus Christ will not persuade us, why would we think that other things would do it?
"Just one! One real sign that he hears me and cares what I have to say. Just one indisputable sign and I’d need no more." Really? Hmmm.
The old timers used to say that the one that has God and everything else has no more than the one that has only God. (What do you think of that?)
The only God there is for believers is the one that relates to us in and as and though Jesus Christ and if that’s not the one we want there might as well be none for there is no other.
Be assured, even if you can’t be assured, God thinks you’re worth dying for.

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