​Great Expectations

It seems to me that everyone and their mother is offended these days. The number of people wearing their feelings on their sleeves and then wondering why they get their feelings hurt is astronomical and amazing to me and a little dumb. That is probably something I shouldn’t say as a loving pastor, but then again the truth of that statement is evident.

It seems that, in the United States at least, the idea of bucking up, keeping a tight upper lip, and ‘you ain’t the center of the Universe’ has gone out of style.

Now as for me, I was taught by my Granny, and everybody else who loved me, to buck up, to keep a tight upper lip and to stop thinking of myself as the center of the Universe. Personally, I consider that to be good parenting, but then again; I’m not a snowflake.

You see, I don’t want a safe space to protect me from things that might hurt my feelings. I do not need a Teddy Bear or a comfort Cockatiel to help me deal with the negative feelings that come from living life with my eyes wide open; and just in case you haven’t noticed yet, I am not politically correct either. Never have been and don’t intend to start.

Now I am not going to hurt your feelings if I can help it, but I am also not going to engage in verbal calisthenics to protect you from the truth when the truth is what is needed.

I don’t know what y’all think of all that, but personally, that is what I want in a best friend and a preacher; but that’s just me.

That is also what I want in a God. I don’t want a God who says he loves me and then lets me do whatever tickles my fancy. To me such a permissive God is not a loving God. That is the God of an agnostic; a God that really doesn’t care about me or you. That’s just a God that doesn’t want to deal with the negativity that naturally comes from properly raising a child to adulthood.

Now while some in the Church today are engaged in avoiding the hard truths and in coddling the sinner, I don’t believe in that. You see, as a practicing sinner myself, who is well versed in many lines of sinning; I don’t need coddling. I need the truth. I don’t need beating around the bush; I need directness. I don’t need a safe space to protect me; I need my feelings hurt by a God who loves me enough to hurt them in order to save my eternal soul.  

Well, how was that for a beginning of the year tirade?

While we’re on the subject, I have never considered God Almighty, nor the Word of God, The Holy Bible, to be politically correct either. It speaks the truth, the unvarnished truth most of the time whether we like it or not, and I tell you right now it hurts my feelings. It lets me know where I am failing and just how I am disappointing my Creator, and what I need to do to make things right.

I contend that if you can read the Holy Scriptures and not get your feelings hurt; then you are either not being honest with yourself, or you’re skipping over every other word or so.

Now that being said, the Holy Bible is also the most loving and caring book ever published. The Word of God is filled with the love of God for His creation. It is filled with His grace, the undeserved love and forgiveness of a God who has every right to turn His back on us as we have turned our backs on Him.

It tells the story of a people who continually turn viciously toward or apathetically away from their Creator, a Creator who loves them enough to take the punishment they deserve just so the ingrates can live eternally with Him in peace, joy and happiness. Go figure.

While I’m on a roll, let’s keep going.

My God is a God who understands that strength comes from perseverance and that perseverance never comes to a mollycoddled child. It takes making it through a trial or two in life to develop the strength and determination it takes to keep going in the face of the world.

Now sometimes when things aren't going our way, we might think that God has forsaken us, and that he has left us all alone in the wilderness to fend for ourselves. He hasn’t.

I am reminded of an old tale my grandpa told me years ago of a Native American tribe that engaged in an old fashion coming of age ceremony for the boys when they reached thirteen.
No, they didn’t suspend them from hooks or anything like that, but rather they took them out deep into the forest where all the creepy crawlies, not to mention the predators live, in the dead of winter, in the dead of night, blindfolded and left them there to fend for themselves all alone, all night long.

Out there all alone listening to the night sounds which always seem sinister, it seemed like the boys would never make it through, much less go to sleep; but in time, fatigue born of fear over took them and sleep came.

When they awoke the next morning, the first thing they noticed was the warm blanket and the second was their Father standing a few feet away where he had stood guard all night long, watching over them while they slept.

Our God is that kind of God. Our God is a God who never lets us down, never lets us off, and yet never lets us go.

There are many aspects to our God. We must remember that every part of God, from the comforting to the terrifying, must be considered in order to get the full picture of who our God actually is and what our God expects from His children.

Far too many believers these days are clinging to the benefits of the Savior while shying away from or simply ignoring the expectations of the Almighty.

Our God is the perfect combination of love and wrath, and to disregard any aspect of His character is to flirt with danger.

As we begin a New Year, I pray that our Lord and Savior will bless us with both His truth and His grace; and also with the grit needed to do what the Lord above expects from His children, unflinchingly and with courage.   
​
Love,
Pastor Tony
 
  

Light and Darkness / Love and Wrath