An interesting thought from class today.
Consider the following interaction:
Child: "Daddy, I don't ever want to be hungry."
Father: "Fine, no dinner for you this evening."
I'm sure this idea would cause any normal person to recoil in disgust. Why is it then that so many people refuse to serve the Lord with an excuse like the following one?
"I won't serve the Lord because I know he'll send me to Africa and I can't stand bugs."
To think that God, who is our Father, delights in causing His children grief is to have a very wrong view of God indeed.
Posted by Gabriel at March 31, 2004 11:30 AMi needed that. thanks.
Posted by: hill at March 31, 2004 03:35 PMfor sake of those christians suffering famine and imprisonment and orphan- or widow-hood or barrenness or illness or even bugs...i would just add one expansion of that observation.
there's also the sometimes apparent "grief" that the father gives because he has infinitely better gifts waiting beyond the grief.
we're not guaranteed safety and provision. we pilgrims don't get promised a risk-free, comfortable lifestyle. we're not entitled to the "ideal" life as the world would define "ideal." as true citizens of heaven, our personal lives, liberties and pursuits of happiness are not guaranteed to us in the same terms as the world's.
but we ARE guaranteed ultimate joy and satisfaction and fulfillment and provision and safety (Psalm 16:11) in the presence of our ultimate Father.
Child: Daddy, I don't ever want to be an old maid.
Father: Except I want to give you that.
Child: Daddy, I don't ever want to be hungry.
Father: Go to the desert and fast and wait for me 40 days.
Child: Father, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.
Father: Go, die on the cross with your eyes to the wall of my back.
And for the prospect of joy set before him, the child endures WHATEVER the father gives. Because the father does give good gifts, whether they seem good at the time or bad.
Posted by: joy at March 31, 2004 05:15 PMThanks for putting it so succinctly Joy!
I intended to make a follow-up post dealing with that very thought, but I don't think I could have said it any better than you have already.
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