So this is what I am reading right now, Restless Faith, by Winn Collier. It is a pretty good book(thus far) that talks about how faith is not a fairytale, an easy path to walk on. The mini title says,”Holding on to a God Just Out of Reach’. I thought that very curious as I was looking at the book.. What does he mean, out of reach? God surrounds us in all that we are, but then I started thinking about those days when you pray to him and nothing ‘gets answered’? Or a friend dies in a car crash. What about these days? Here is an excerpt from the book that caught my eye.
“We knock up against the brutish reality that there is a well-entrenched distinction between God as good(loving, caring, faithful, fatherly) and God as safe(predictable, easy, cozy). Goodness is inherent in God’s core essence. Good is one way of describing what he is. Safe, however, is something God has never promised. His is a dangerous goodness. What kind of God is this? One who abounds in mercy, yet also ravages and destroys”(Winn Collier, 25).
A kid from my youth group asked me, Since their is a devil and God is supposed to love everyone(and he does), Do you think God loves the devil (would forgive him)? Yes, this question came from a 5 year old and yes this is hard to answer. Have you ever heard the saying, I love you, but I don’t have to like you? God is a just God. He also knows the plan.
He loves us in ways we can’t even imagine. He gave us life, which we don’t deserve. The BIble shows us stories of mass killings of other tribes and nations to lay the foundation for the Isrealites. A ton of people died for the sake of Christians progress. But through it all, he was there. Through plaques, Christian persecution, he was there. Have you ever noticed that when everything in your life is grand, you tend to struggle with communicating with God? AS soon as a tragedy strikes or even a minor scrape appears you cling to God and ask for help. We are born selfish (give me that toy-no it’s mine!), yet he loves us.. IF we have faith in him through all these things, life will still be hard, we will still struggle, and one day we will still die. The promise that was given ,however, should make our minds clear to all of the problems in the world. We are always going to be connected to him eternally. Not a safe faith, but rusty nail faith. I still think it is a better path than not knowing him at all.
