Today the speaker at church encouraged us to reflect on our lives and the ways in which has been active in them. As I listened I began to wonder if our understanding of God's role in my (our) life (lives) isn't very much affected by our perspectives. And because of this we miss the many blessings we have received and could receive. A couple of examples:
In a recent posting here in CF, the common question arose: "why do bad things happen to good people?" or put a different way "why does God allow bad things to happen to (good) people?" Both of these questions imply that the one asking assumes that "good" people deserve to be treated well by God; that somehow, God is not being "fair" to them, when good people suffer. This of course begs the questions "what is 'good'?" "how do we define 'good people'?" This entire angle, as implied in the original questions, leads to a emphasis on God's unfairness, on his 'injustice,' his 'unrighteousness' and to statements like "I could never believe in a god who allows so many decent people to suffer ... in war,... in earthquakes, ... in floods,..." and so on. God is made out to be some sort of capricious, mean minded, being that lacks any sense of fair play, because he doesn't give us "what we deserve" (as defined by us, of course).
If we ask the inverse question "why do good things happen to bad people?" or even more broadly "why does God allow good things to happen to any of us, at all?" we find an entirely different implication. The scriptures say He lets the sun shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, his rain falls on the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. Of course we could still say "He is being unfair; bad people should not receive good things." But ultimately, we must see that none of us actually deserve good things happening to us, since we all have rebelled against God. From this perspective, God is suddenly an unreasonably generous being, one whose goodness goes far beyond what we deserve in terms of favours. And the scriptures, making this very point, tell us that He does so over and over again in order to get people (everyone) to understanding how loving He is, to win them over.
Other examples that deserve some thought include
Do you see God having a part in your life's plan? or Do you see yourself as having a role in God's plan? In this sense - where is the focus - your plan, or His plan? Is your idea that He should support your plan and purpose for life, or that you should support His? What changes in your relationship with Him depending on this focus? And what difference does this make in the long term?
Referring to Ephesians 2:10, do you see any difference between a perspective in which "you are prepared in Christ to do good works" (in which you go out to come up with good works to do) and one in which "God has prepared good works for you to do?" (implying that He has already organised a bunch of good works that are perfectly suited to your personality, your skills and talents, your stage in personal development at the current time). One seems to require our creative and active initiative to make it into a good work; the other requires that we are observant, seeing and listening, and responding positively to something God has initiated for us to partner with Him in accomplishing. And how do these relate to scriptures that tell us that we cannot do anything of ourselves that pleases God, but that all God initiates bears good fruit.
What are your thoughts? third or multiple perspectives?
In a recent posting here in CF, the common question arose: "why do bad things happen to good people?" or put a different way "why does God allow bad things to happen to (good) people?" Both of these questions imply that the one asking assumes that "good" people deserve to be treated well by God; that somehow, God is not being "fair" to them, when good people suffer. This of course begs the questions "what is 'good'?" "how do we define 'good people'?" This entire angle, as implied in the original questions, leads to a emphasis on God's unfairness, on his 'injustice,' his 'unrighteousness' and to statements like "I could never believe in a god who allows so many decent people to suffer ... in war,... in earthquakes, ... in floods,..." and so on. God is made out to be some sort of capricious, mean minded, being that lacks any sense of fair play, because he doesn't give us "what we deserve" (as defined by us, of course).
If we ask the inverse question "why do good things happen to bad people?" or even more broadly "why does God allow good things to happen to any of us, at all?" we find an entirely different implication. The scriptures say He lets the sun shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike, his rain falls on the good, the bad and the ugly, so to speak. Of course we could still say "He is being unfair; bad people should not receive good things." But ultimately, we must see that none of us actually deserve good things happening to us, since we all have rebelled against God. From this perspective, God is suddenly an unreasonably generous being, one whose goodness goes far beyond what we deserve in terms of favours. And the scriptures, making this very point, tell us that He does so over and over again in order to get people (everyone) to understanding how loving He is, to win them over.
Other examples that deserve some thought include
Do you see God having a part in your life's plan? or Do you see yourself as having a role in God's plan? In this sense - where is the focus - your plan, or His plan? Is your idea that He should support your plan and purpose for life, or that you should support His? What changes in your relationship with Him depending on this focus? And what difference does this make in the long term?
Referring to Ephesians 2:10, do you see any difference between a perspective in which "you are prepared in Christ to do good works" (in which you go out to come up with good works to do) and one in which "God has prepared good works for you to do?" (implying that He has already organised a bunch of good works that are perfectly suited to your personality, your skills and talents, your stage in personal development at the current time). One seems to require our creative and active initiative to make it into a good work; the other requires that we are observant, seeing and listening, and responding positively to something God has initiated for us to partner with Him in accomplishing. And how do these relate to scriptures that tell us that we cannot do anything of ourselves that pleases God, but that all God initiates bears good fruit.
What are your thoughts? third or multiple perspectives?
