Friday, May 4, 2012

I Make A Horrible God


I awoke to a call for prayer so urgent, the inquietude exorcised me out of bed.

My first thoughts of the day were apprehension. So I prayed, for cousins led astray, learned in the dark arts of spiritual ignorance, luminaries of stupidity.

They couldn't see they were driving glass cars, twenty miles over the speed limit into a forest of brick trees. To be frank, I was certain they would all die soon. I prayed indoors, until driven into the open air.

I petitioned to Heaven, while occasionally staring at the mess which was the front yard: a patchy dry assortment of dead greens and rusty browns, its crowning shame a dilapidated tree-bush hybrid thingy centerpiece. It would conform to my shears in a few hours.

Have you ever been consumed by some activity for a reason beyond yourself? I snapped branches with a fascinating ferocity some would mistake for passion. And why was I passionate? Because I wish people were like this tree: that they would just stand still and let me fix them already.

I have a Savior-complex. Don't you?

My yen is to be the harbinger of their success, the answer to their problems, I really wanted to be their god.

I wouldn't be very gracious, but I would a good god, maybe, at least I think so...OK...OK...I would be a horrible god...and that's the point.

We aren't saviors, just support for the real one, Jesus. We don't ensure the warranty, we're just customer service. So when the problems of others consume you, remember, you are there to help, but God does the healing.

God help us to remember, we aren't you.

“As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

-Luke 3:15-16
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