God is God

A sweet friend of mine received terrible news this week and is now struggling through the darkest time in her life.  I was with her when she heard the news and her first reaction, like many of ours facing the same pain and grief, was that of questioning.

“I just don’t understand,” she cried over and over.  

Her physician tried to comfort her by telling her that “God doesn’t make mistakes.  There is reason for this, even if we can’t see it right now.”

My friend affirmed she knew that to be true, that indeed she believed it to be true, but then she would come back to that place of “not understanding.” At one point I told her “if we understood, we’d be gods.”

This is a simple but profound truth in the universe:  God is God and we are not.  The sooner we believe this the easier our acceptance of all those difficult, dark, painful places in our lives will be.  

Yet, each of us can look back on our lives and see times when we acted as if we “were God”.  We acted as if we had perfect truth, perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom.  The truth is we don’t and we should humbly throw ourselves at the feet of the only One who is and will ever be, God.

There is a corollary truth: God’s way is perfect and ours is not.  If given the ability to completely choose everything for ourselves, we would make mistakes.  We would choose poorly.  Doesn’t our past prove that to be true?   Right now, each of us can most likely look back on our lives and see times when we made the stupidest of decisions, but at the time we thought them to be wise and true.  Our way simply isn’t perfect and isn’t going to be perfect.  It behooves us to trust totally in the One whose way is always perfect.

I know that I have disappointed myself far too many times, but the Lord has never disappointed me.  Looking back on the dark times in my life when I didn’t understand, such as my friend is traveling now, I could later see the wisdom and perfection of the Lord in my life.  He took me through dark places I would have never chosen for myself to reveal Himself to me and sometimes to reveal Himself through me to others. Frances would have never led herself there of her own volition.

So as we walk the path the Lord has made plain before our face, be it the dark of night or the bright of day, let us remember – no, let us cling to these two truths.  God is God and we are not, and God’s way is perfect and ours is not.  These will be shining lamps to us in times of darkness and ports to us in time of storm.

“As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is tried:

He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him.” 

2 Samuel 22:31

 “For Thou art great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone.”

Psalm 86:10