The Contrary God

Hello people, Fred here. Hope things have been going well for you all.
Cross Purposes #63

Accepting the ‘Contrary’
Somewhere in Proverbs there’s a mischievous bit of wisdom from wise old Solomon about it being better to live in the far corner of the desert than in the same house as a ‘contrary’ woman. He’d know, I suppose that it can be difficult if your wife (in his case 400! Plus 300 concubines!) should second guess everything you say. Blokes do it as well to their wives!

Anyway, this is not about marriage – it’s about our ‘contrary’ God. What do I mean? Well, every time we think we’ve got it settled about how it is between him and us, us and him, well, he shows us it’s not quite what we thought. Mostly this is about movement or direction. We’re slow learners. Let me give you some brief examples;

1. Emptying / filling. We have it in our heads and hearts that we’ll obtain life by filling up with good deeds and activities. Yeh, we know we’re not perfect but if we get up more credit points for the good than debit points for the bad, it will all be okay at the final judgement.

God on the other hand tells us to empty ourselves of our sins – so he can fill the inside of us with his life. He wants to fill us with the credit points of Jesus.
He runs by his ways, not ours.

2. Saving life / losing life. We think we are creating “life” for ourselves by accumulating – things, wealth, achievements, qualifications.

Jesus comes along and says that’s not his way. You can get life only by losing it! In the Kingdom you inherit only what you give away.
He runs by his ways, not ours.

3. Closer to God / further from God. We humans think that drawing near to God is being more spiritual. We feel closer to God when we do good churchy religious things.

He says that the only way to be close to him is by being “in Christ”, (eg baptised into Christ, living in Christ). Once we are in Christ – trusting him – we’re always close to God. So when you and I walk through dark and deathly valleys, or deep waters, or through fire, even if we feel disconnected, every moment is in fact lived, suffered, experienced, enjoyed, in his presence.
He runs by his ways, not ours.

4. The ups and downs. We humans have an instinct from birth, from the nature inherited from Adam and Eve, which has us aspiring to greatness, to rise up, to go for power and control. That’s our route to greatness.

Jesus’ way sends us downwards. The first will be last, the last – first. Want to be great? – become a servant of all! Be like a child. Have the mind and attitude of Jesus Christ. Sure is a topsy, turvey world.
He runs by his ways, not ours.

5. Whose journey will it be? We humans have an arrogance about us when we talk about inviting Jesus into our hearts – to come with us on our journey – to align his future with ours.

Jesus doesn’t talk about invitations. It’s about calling, about summoning. It’s about hearing his voice – follow me – and dropping everything on our agenda and following him! Cross and all.
He runs by his ways, not ours.

Ah, to grow up.
With his intervention we grow. There’s a freedom in knowing what he’s like and what he asks. As old Stan said to me not long before he died, “When I was young I thought ‘Why should I bloody well bother with God’ Now that I’m old I keep wondering why God should bloody well bother about me”.

Why? Because our Lord has cross purposes for each one of us.

May your week be blessed.

Pastor Fred