Holy Chaos, God

When I was newly married, after a serious disagreement with my wife, I was complaining to my Dad about how difficult Bev could be. (Yes, I hear some of you laughing for you know me too well to just let that statement go without challenge.) Dad stopped my complaint with one of his homespun lessons. "Son, we know horses, don't we?"  And we did. I grew up training high-spirited purebreds in our stables. He continued, "There are work horses, predictable and plodding. Then, there are high-spirited show horses that are hard to manage. You, son, have married a show horse." I still laugh when I tell that story 30 years after the fact. Dad helped me to understand, in his own way, that Bev's spirit made her much more interesting as a person. If I tried to make her tame, instead of learning to maximize her contribution to our marriage, I would rob myself of many joys. How right he was!

It is quite possible to look for the wrong things in my relationship with God!
God is not tame, nor is His aim to make my life quietly boring. Mark Galli writes that "we've forgotten the God of the Bible - the untamable, unruly, mysterious Spirit who regularly upsets our plans and, yes, sometimes creates havoc in our lives." (Chaos and Grace, Baker Books, 2011)  This is not to suggest that God is just trying to make life difficult for us because He lacks focus! His goal is to draw us to Himself and He uses our life circumstances to cause us to love Him deeply and dependently. From that place we are His partners in His eternal purpose.

We slip easily into prayers for smooth roads, easy circumstances, and a tame predictable religion. He invites us, by shaking up our preconceptions, to an adventure where we can only survive if we have a radical trust built squarely on faith. Left to ourselves, we will find the safe middle, choosing a predictable religion. Even as we hope for Heaven, growing fat and complacent, we miss the adventure of the Kingdom journey we can know now. It is easy to forget that the Alpha and Omega of the Revelation was offended most by a church that had lost her first love, that had cooled to a tepid, nauseating state that Jesus said, "Makes me ready to vomit!" (Rev. 3:14 PJV) Often He must turn us upside down to keep us from settling into a boring life that finds more satisfaction at the dinner table than at His Table. Jesus says, "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat." (Matthew 5:6, The Message)

The Scripture urges us to "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:15-19, NIV) The Holy Spirit wants to liberate us from Self-satisfaction, a sin deadly to spiritual vitality. Will we let Him? Or, will we learn to love the rut of our religiosity, trying to satisfy the longing for meaning and purpose with the stuff that ultimately enslaves us to our appetites and passions?

Pray a different way today.
Instead of seeking relief from difficulty, pray for the ability to discover God's in the chaos. Instead of asking for easy, ask for endurance.
Instead of looking for predictable, invite Him to teach you how to 'walk by faith, not by sight.'  

Then you will sing this word from the Word, a song of joy for the faithful: "We're here! We've come back to you. You're our own true God! All that popular religion was a cheap lie, duped crowds buying up the latest in gods. We're back! Back to our true God, the salvation of Israel." (Jeremiah 3:22-23, The Message)