Ranta Ravings II

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

All Things Work Together for Good (or is it God)?

Yep, we often hear it and even quote it to all those that seem to be in crisis "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28 (I'm quoting it from memory). Have you ever noticed that when you are in a crisis, the Bible can be either a comfort or a club with some people. I can attest that I have been both comforted and victimized at this time in my own struggle. The other day, I had someone very close to me say, "so where is you're faith in all this?" I found myself offended, since I still believe that God has all of this in his care and hands and that hasn't changed. The statement came, because I told this person that I was depresseed and desparate!" The formula that was being assessed here was depression + desparation = lack of faith or unbelief. So I had to ask myself, "is faith something deeper than feeling okay?" I've been under the assumption that it is living in a cosmic sense of navigation when all things seem to take another course than what you desire. It is allowing yourself to be honest to God and say, "I don't like this, and I don't feel good about it, but I do know that somehow it serves eternity." It goes beyond denial and into those deep intermost places of our being that realizes there is another that I belong to, and I really don't own my life anymore. There may be screaming, crying, pain, desparation and maybe behavior that seems inappropriate for a "good Christian" to exude, but that's the point, faith is other than this, and dying is a hard thing for our Western mind to do. Faith also begs us to wait and watch the marvelous unfold into something that we cannot make happen ourselves! So when it all crashes in, we are not called to just make believe that it is all okay, but maybe we are being made period through the pain, stuggle, and screaming out! Maybe this is what the Jonah meant by writing "In my distress I called to the LORD...From the depths of the grave I called for help..." Jonah 2:2.

7 Comments:

  • At 1:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Radiohead Start Blog
    US band Radiohead has started their own blog, Dead Air Space , to document the creation of their new album.
    Nice to see some decent content for a change. FYI, I log on today and see that we've got a new feature, the 'Flag blog' button, which is inconveniently located between the 'Get Your Own Blog' and 'Next Blog' buttons so that we would presumably be getting some flags on error alone (although if one happens to notice it, you can unflag a blog) But that's a trivial matter. What concerns me is this: When a person visiting a blog clicks the "Flag?" button in the Blogger Navbar, it means they believe the content of the blog may be potentially offensive or illegal. We track the number of times a blog has been flagged as objectionable and use this information to determine what action is needed. This feature allows the blogging community as a whole to identify content they deem objectionable. Ok, see the problem with this? What's "objectionable. And there lies the problem: what is objectionable? Just my 2 cents, RPG Contact Lenses

     
  • At 8:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Yeah, gotta love it when people (even unintentionally) question your faith if you have anything more than sunshine on your face. Not at all Biblical, but a lot of people don't know/don't care.

    We still have a lot of "you get what you deserve" attitude in the church, which is crazy when you think about it. Protestantism is rife with a "God helps those who help themselves" outlook that's more often than not a way to either bash people who are in a bad place -or- to cover their own lack of faith in God's plan.

    On a related note, see if your blogger has a 'picture confirm' option for posters. Those 'match the letter' boxes will prevent bots from posting comments like the two above.

     
  • At 11:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Rich stuff. The stuff of life. Complex, difficult, no easy explanations.
    You're exploring profound and deep realities. Thanks for sharing.

     
  • At 10:53 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Your faith is there. You can't always see it, touch it, feel it or even show it... but it is there. If we are crying out in despair then isn't there some drop of faith within us that believes God hears and God cares?
    I don't understand the why of despair and depression. Being one who deals with it I do know that some days all you can hang onto is the times when you do know and remember that God is not silent, He is not still and He is singing over you!
    Praying for you!!

     
  • At 9:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This guy is a Phoney. He says he loves, but is is somethine else that he does. Does God really exist in his life??? I tired but failed. Be the judge yourself.

     
  • At 10:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Sorry, let me make some corrections to spelling; He says he loves, but it is something else that he does.

     
  • At 11:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    You freak!!! You probably don't even know him. And learn how to spell!

     

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