07152016 No Simple Explanation
This morning, after four hours of sleep, I woke to this post on my Facebook feed. I clicked the link because it sounded intriguing, and I wanted insight as to what the friend who posted it might be trying to convey. The opening disturbed me right away, and I felt the same internal posture that happens whenever I hear the phrase, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” I hate that phrase. Seriously. I’ve never held my feelings back here, and I won’t start now. I make it a point as a Christian, never to give that phrase out as a trite consolation to someone who is enduring a difficult part of their journey or being challenged or stretched in any way.
The posture in me firms, I start to clench fists. I become angry at the words, “The truth is, God is giving you more than you can handle.” While I agree that God will stretch our faith and challenge us to do/think/act/believe/trust more than we ever thought or imagined possible, and that He uses our weakness to display His power, I struggle with saying “God is giving you more than you can handle” to someone who is going through something really super big, whose faith is new or in the “baby” stage. I don’t like the broad stroke it paints, which is why I don’t say it.
Even though I know that NOTHING passes onto us that hasn’t first been approved by Him, I don’t say, “God will never give you more than you can handle.” I’ve been blessed to do a lot of listening in my life. I’ve heard various viewpoints and I have sat in silence as people work at untangling the beautiful enigma of God’s personality. Some will say that this is why Christians are making it up as we go along. Why God is not good, powerful, or able to change anything. Some will surely say that God is even angry or mean. A big bully in the sky who just moves us about as puppets unless we break free from the marionette strings and make our own choices and decisions. Yes, some would say that. Some people I love dearly and pray for and have walked beside. That’s okay. I don’t need to defend God. God can handle whatever they throw at Him, and I rejoice at the fact that one day, they will have conversations with Him, and will be restored to relationship by nothing else but their doubts and desires to prove Him wrong. Yes, God can use even that!
When someone, even myself, is grieving or struggling or simply just facing a decision; I don’t use the statement “God never gives you more than you can handle” because I don’t believe that God “gives” us hard things. Life as a limited human being is HARD. Period. That is why I choose to love and lean into a God who is omnipotent (all powerful), a God who is for me, a God who will never run, abandon, retreat, or surrender. A loving God who chose me when He made Mary conceive. See that there? He made Mary conceive.* He chose her too. It’s really weird how I can believe that God doesn’t make bad things happen, yet he lets them happen. What does this mean? Is God cruel? Is He vengeful, hateful, and angry? Is He powerless and weak and only good? No. None of that and all of that.
I ran into this little gem from Rick Warren last night, while trying to find something meaningful for a friend who is in a challenging portion right now.
And I found this for myself! It answers the question, how can God be gentle enough to love me so well, and yet powerful enough to save me from all that is evil? The answer seems to me that God is God and I am not. God can be something I don’t understand because if I could fully understand Him, God would be nothing more than an Algebra problem or a puzzle or a correct spelling. Can I love a God I don’t understand? Don’t I love everything I don’t understand? My husband, my children, the weather, my brain? Of course. I love my life, even though I don’t understand. I love my children – even though I do not understand them sometimes. I love my brain, even though I do not have the training to understand how it works. I love my husband, even though I’ll never live long enough to completely understand him. So yes, I can love a God I don’t understand. Loving God does not require any pondering – it requires action. I love God by listening to others, by choosing to defer my own wishes and desires. I love God by reaching out to someone I’d rather not acknowledge, or by spending my own money on people I’d rather not spend it on. I love God by resting, sleeping, and playing and being present in the places He has designed me to be, for the purposes He created for me. I love God by singing, dancing, clapping, and crying. I love God by breathing. The way you love God may look different.
We don’t know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future. God is good, all the time, even when life is not. God is good. Period. But how do I know this? How can I be sure there is a God at all?
A person can’t have the life I had nine years ago, and the life I have now, and declare that there is not a God. I will never be able to deny the miracles that have occurred in my life, and I won’t be able to contain them either. My God is bigger than anything I could have ever imagined. He is more powerful than any power I can dream up. He is much more loving than anyone I’ve ever known to love. I can’t explain it. I just know that there is a God and that He is good. Full stop. The end.
*this part of my post troubles me, so I expanded on it in a new post (“Still No Explanation”, December 2021), click the link to read it.
Momma Rich's 