Suppose 10 lonely guys faithfully seeking God are pursuing the same female. If the female's chosen suitor is in any way orchestrated by God, on what basis could He possibly make this decision? If God bases it on anything other than the fact that the chosen suitor is the best match for her, we might suggest He is personal to him, perhaps because he is the most God-fearing of the lot, something or other.
But by being personal to him, it seems His decision becomes less than ideal and potentially even disastrous for the poor girl. For God has chosen this suitor not because he is the best match for her, but because he is the most faithful to Him. Thus, God's personal act bestowed on this suitor creates an inferior relationship because they are not properly matched. And all this at the behest of wonderful God!
On the other hand, if God bases His decision on the fact that this suitor is the best match for her, then this will create a healthy relationship sure to last a lifetime. But this decision does not seem personal to anybody. God simply orchestrated the best possible match based solely on compatibility. One would obviously be wise to question why this would not just as easily happen without God?
What is my point in all of this? That it seems to be a silly waist of time asking God to intervene in a personal way in our affairs. The proper suitor will, or at least should, find his soul mate based purely on compatibility, not by praying and pleading to God relentlessly. Project this onto countless other circumstances in life.
For instance, take job hunting. One will, or once again should, get a job based on qualification and personality, not by praying and pleading to God for a job that a bunch of militant atheists are much better qualified for. If God is in the business of discriminating against much better qualified atheists simply because they are atheists, many companies will be left to deal with faithful yet less than ideal employees. I fail to see how this would make God good except possibly to the faithful that are ill-equipped to get a job based on qualification and personality alone.
I now feel compelled to ask God a question from one of my most beloved movies which He is no doubt familiar with (Office Space). "You should ask yourself...for every decision you make, is this good for the company? Am I helping with the company's strategic vision?"
I would never claim to know why God does what he does. From what I have read and from what I have experienced it appears to me that God often chooses to give people things and take things from people for reasons that have nothing to do with the people involved. For example when God chose Joseph(Genesis not gospels) he did it to set up his nation not because Joseph was some perfect guy. God would probably choose the suitor that would best fulfill His purposes by being with her. This may sound like it is unfair to them because you may ask what if the guy that best fulfills His purposes is a bad match for her? My answer would be that if you trust God than you have to believe that in the grand scheme of things He knows what's best. However this is all really a mute point because there is nothing that we can do to change it and we are still making our own decisions. Faith in God isn't about trusting God to give you what you want its about believing in His goodness in all things even situations that feel like more that we can bear. I would say that God has been asking himself the office space question for a long time.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I believe the best course of action for all of us, whether or not we believe God is there, is to just be ourselves. Only then can we truly be who He made us to be, or it would so seem. And to say that we do not necessarily know why God does this or that is, to ME, another way of saying God is not personal in any "personal" (this of course being self-serving to the individual) way.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that we should be ourselves; "to thine own self be true". Which is not to say that self motivated self improvement is a bad thing. I think that self reflection and being honest with ourselves is extremely valuable in life especially when it comes to emotional health. When I think of a personal relationship with God I think of the peace and inner strength that I have felt at times as well as conviction. Those moments usually come when I am able to be completely honest with myself.
ReplyDelete