I’m honestly just hurting today and needed to write this down somewhere besides my journal of thoughts. I’m hurting for a couple of specific reasons.
The first reason I am hurting is with the deaths of all who were slain in shootings this weekend including Christina Grimmie. I’m hurting because there were a large number of Christians in this country that probably did not pray for the families of all involved in the violence this weekend for one reason or another. I’m hurt that we keep talking about ways to try to solve “the problem” when I believe we are not focusing enough attention to the problem at the root of our condition.
I am hurt because I believe we have taken God off of the throne. We have taken Him off the throne, as gently as we could as to not hurt God’s feelings I might add because we want to be politically correct to God, and have metaphorically and ideologically placed ourselves on the throne instead. We have denied God, and pursued our own selfishness, our own glory and our own desires. There is a problem in the system. That problem is us, a flawed and sin-filled humanity. Many of us have placed ourselves as the judge, the jury, the prosecutor, and the defense in our pursuit of the throne of God. In our narcissism we have elevated ourselves to a God-like status and it seems to be getting worse the longer we allow ourselves to believe in the fallacy that we could possibly know better than God does.
The thing that is probably most concerning is that this is not uncommon for the human condition. In the book of Jeremiah in the Holy Bible (NIV), God uses Jeremiah as a mouthpiece to declare God’s words to the group of Israelites who had turned away from God. Let’s keep in mind these were God’s literally chosen people. He tells Jeremiah to go to the people and say these things: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me, and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her [Israel] were held guilty, and disaster overtook them…” Then the passage goes on to read “… What fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves… those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols…” The text then talks about how God brings charges against the land of Israel, but in verse 13 Jeremiah speaks to Israel on behalf of God and says this: “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” The people committed two sins. They chose their sin and they chose their sin over God. Then in verse 19, “consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord almighty.
This passage begs the questions: Have we lost our awe of God? Have we personified God so much that we are fighting about belief in and disbelief in a God who doesn’t actually represent the real God? Have we placed God as only able to exist in the event that He exists in our context and understanding of how He could exist?
As for me, I will continue to pray to the Sovereign God for everyone affected this weekend by the horrible events that have happened no matter who they were, what they believed, how they identified or what they stood for. I will pray for the families of those affected that through some unknown reason God would be known in their lives and glorified because of these tragedies. I will choose to put God back on the throne in my life and take myself off. As John the Baptist said… He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease.
I will stand in awe of God and revere His words in my life. I hope you will join me.
leadershape 