Could I still praise Him?

The Thinking Man sculpture at Musée Rodin in Paris (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If everything was torn away could I, would I still praise God?  A hard question to contemplate.  An even harder one to try to answer honestly.

This year, actually the past couple have been hard on my career, my financials, even my personal life.  Two years ago a romantic relationship I thought would never end did, in an ugly way.  My career ears has been one set back after another.  Friends I thought, believed I could count on won’t even return a phone call.  And yet thru it all I am more thankful to God.  Not for what has happened, but because He keeps picking me back up and helping me to take one more step forward.

A shift in priorities

A few dollars I was not expecting showed up, just in time for new tires for my truck, which needed them desperately.  This past year God has provided, some times from places I never saw coming, other times from friends, family, or work.  Never too late, I haven’t missed a meal, but rarely early or more than just enough.

Not that long ago I would have been a mental disaster trying to deal with all the stuff.  Stressed out over where the money was going to come from or how to pay for this or that.  But now I find myself not just learning to be ok with not knowing, but laughing at how God provides, even when I can’t see how it will work out the night before.

It has brought me to a place of trusting and leaning more on the Father then I ever have.  However that said, I was reading Philippians this morning and I was thinking about Paul, hungry, beaten, all that he went thru and it started me thinking.

Could I praise God in that place?

I don’t know, and I am thankful I will probably never have to find out.

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What does God want, to be known or to be believed?

Do I focus too much on the knowing, the need to know.  Rather then believe, and let God be God, accepting that some of his workings are beyond my comprehension.  Or should I trust what I do not fully understand while seeking knowledge and wisdom.  Search for truth, and understanding, believing that God wants to be known, or else he would not have made himself known in even an infinitesimally small way.  Which comes first, believing God or knowing God?

Faith ain’t always easy

Any of you who know me, know that I do not see Christianity as being dependent on blind faith.  I see God as one who has shown himself over and over again to man, and yes to me personally, tho before you get the wrong idea, no I have never had a vision, a dream or even a burning bush.  Still I find myself focusing on trying to know the why and the what of God.  Why are things in my life the way they are?  What is God trying to show or teach me?  But what if it is not about me?

Max Lucado has a great book “It’s not about me“.  Sometimes this book is a bit hard to read, at least for me.  Not because it is too deep or theological but because of what it makes me face.  One of the things Mr. Lucado talks about is the story of Job, yes that Job.  He points out that after all that Job goes thru and endures, loss of family, wealth, health.  When God comes and speaks to Job, and restores everything and more to him, God never tells him the why.  God doesn’t ease Job’s mind about the why.  God doesn’t tell Job, “Look people will be studying your life, and using it for an example for 5,000 years”

No my trials and issues are NOTHING like Job’s

Would it have made a difference to Job?  I don’t know.  I do know that sometimes I don’t get to know the why.  Maybe that’s just as well.  I can’t speak for you but if God came and told me.  “I know this is tough but someone reading this 20 years from now half a world away is going to make it through a hard time because of this.”   My first thought would probably be really, you can’t find someone else to use as an example?

I’m not one for blind faith, and even tho this might seem like what I am talking about having, it is not.  I have faith because God has been faithful.  God has done things in my past that make it seem realistic that he knows what he is doing.  Even when I don’t.

What about you?  Do you find God wanting you to know him or trust him more?

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