Ideals and Reality with God

As many of you know, I was recently on a family vacation to Colorado. It was strange being back in parts of the state that I know so well. Before I drive anywhere in Thomasville I triple (more like quadruple) check where I'm going and have lots of second guesses along the way! Maybe it's my fault. I don't drive very much since we live only a few blocks away from the church. Maybe I should drive more...

Anyways... the trip was good, and I enjoyed seeing family and old friends. One of the highlights was being able to dig into a book by Philip Yancey called Reaching for the Invisible God (2000). The book was given to me by Theresa Brown (Thanks Theresa!) and, so far, I've found it incredibly insightful and refreshing. Yancey, in the book, speaks honestly of the complexities of faith, doubt and longing for God that's becoming increasingly common to talk about today. It's refreshing. Here's why:

Yancey points out, as  Christians, we tend to be idealistic people. We are idealistic in our morality ("A Christian should never take part in... or think of...") and our spirituality ("A Christian should pray at least 100 times a day... and never doubt...").

The problem is, our ideals don't hold up well to real life, we don't feel comfortable sharing our struggles with them, we get in the habit of pretending everything is sunshine and rainbows when secretly we're wondering, "Am I even a Christian at all??" At least this has been my experience.

As Christians, we are always reaching, and even more so, being reached toward by an invisible, Holy God. As much as we long to feel connected or close with God, we often feel as if God is a stranger. This is due mostly to our ideals. We hold an ideal that we can have a personal relationship with God and that's partly why it's so frustrating when we feel, if anything, that God has stood us up. Even the Psalmist writes, "Why O Lord do you reject me?" (Ps 88:14). Then, our so-called "good" theology comes in and tells us, "God isn't rejecting you! You must be missing something here. Are you really that foolish to think that all-knowing, ever-present God has left the building?"

Are you seeing how these ideals aren't always helpful?

I liken this experience to marriage. Do any of you who are married remember what you thought marriage was going to be like? I do. Spoiler alert, it's way different than the ideal of marriage that you have in mind. That's not to say it's not a beautiful, special thing. It's just different than what we expect it to be.

Adjusting to and appreciating the reality above the ideal is what we must learn to do. Marriage is way different than what I thought it was going to be, but my character has grown through marriage more than my idealistic picture would have allowed. Not everything should be easy. Hard things are worth doing. That sounds like a Theodore Roosevelt quote, doesn't it?

The truth is, walking with God is a walk with much tension. On one hand we are called to live into Christian ideals, but we are also called into fellowship with a mysterious, Holy God in a confusing world. If we discard the challenges, we may not find all that God is.

As we walk with others in faith, we need to speak of both ideals and realities. Both have a role to play. Speaking humbly, and dare I add, joyfully, about the difficulties of being a person of faith can lead to healing and restorative conversations. We can walk away with thinking, "Wow, following Jesus is difficult and nothing like I expected it to be, but it is so worth it!". We must open up to others in the same way God desires we open up with Him. After all, nothing is hidden from God.

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