03: A Perfect, Holy, Loving God
This is the answer I keep coming back to. Of course, there are days when I can’t help but feel like this far off cosmic Being clearly had no idea what He was doing when my dad’s sperm met up with my mom’s egg and fashioned what would eventually enter the world as a tiny, slime covered human being. But I always return to the knowledge that Creator God is perfect, holy, and loving.
There aren’t enough words in all the books in all the libraries in all of the whole wide world to describe the vastness of this God.
I’ve heard some call Him a puppet master, an impersonal entity that strings us up and makes us dance for His own amusement. I’ve known people to treat Him like a wish granting genie, producing pleasure on a supply line and sending it free of shipping and handling charges whenever they are in need of a boost. I’ve had people call me an idiot for even believing in His existence. But none of that has ever really changed my mind. Something tells me that I would still be here, even without the upbringing that I had.
We’re all searching for meaning and identity. All seven billion of us. We turn to People Magazine, self-help books, our friends, our family, and even strangers in order to aid and guide us along the journey of self-discovery. There’s really no shame in wanting to be happy and fulfilled, in learning self-care techniques and honing our gifts and talents. But if our own happiness and fulfillment is the end game, I fear we’ve missed the point.
And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all of the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26, 27
I do believe that God desires for us to be happy. But more than that, I believe that God wants us, His creation, to find him. And scripture assures that though it may be implied that God is hidden, He is not far from each one of us.
He is personal. He knows the intimate details of our lives like what kind of coffee we drink, what makes us laugh the hardest, and what makes us feel afraid (we will talk about this more on day twelve).
The Lord orchestrates our lives so that we might bump into His grace. Every success, every accomplishment, even the painful days, and the hurt that doesn’t make sense are intricately planned, as if by a lover who has known you all of your life and is beckoning you to notice him.
Sometimes, when people notice Him, they become angry. They wonder how a loving God could allow bombs to drop and planes to fall out of the sky and cells to go rogue, how He could sit idly by as babies die and marriages disintegrate. Admittedly, I have asked the question countless times myself.
But then, I consider how fearfully and wonderfully this whole world has been made: how the lilies bow in reverence and the sea foam bubbles excitedly against the sandy shores, and how the very substance that holds my cells together looks exactly like the cross, and I know that none of this could have come about by accident. When I look at my life, the good far outweighs the bad.
The joy overwhelms the broken. I believe that the God who made me is full of joy, and I believe that I was created in His image, designed to grow and feel and think and experience, and at the end of the day, count it all joy.
So, here goes.
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The conversation starts here:
Have you ever felt shame about the desire to live happy and fulfilled? What do you believe is the source of that shame? How do you combat it?
{Leave your questions + answers + thoughts in the comments below.}
Some Fine Print:
This is the third of thirty-one installments to be posted throughout the month of October. To view the entire table of contents as it is made available, click here. You can receive the entire series in your inbox for free by subscribing via email (no spam, just my heart by way of weblog). Please feel free to pass these words along to a friend. Sharing is caring!