Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Ironic Artist


When thinking of God's style of doin' biz, the word that seems to come to mind is 'ironic.' I mean really ... Only every so often does a nice and tidy straight forward approach to a problem is ever used. Oh ... Occasionally ... A woman gets sick, Jesus heals her that kind of thing. Even in my own life I've seem similar. But for the most part, God seems to let the plot continue off in a bunch of seemingly perilous ways. Then somehow upon looking back on things, weaves all these threads into the answer .... The route home ... Only from the top of the mountain does the landscape really make sense.

I guess that this should be no surprise really. Paul had his thorn in the flesh ... Which he gave thanks for! In the Old Testament we have Joseph saying to his brothers, "What you have intended for harm, God intended for good." (Genesis 50:20) God the Father did not save Jesus from the cross, but in what has to be considered ironic, saved others through His death. The bottom line is, a sovereign God uses 'bad' things as material for good.

My own life story has things in it I resent, many things to repent, pain from various things, times of poverty, wrong choices of course, broken relationships, broken dreams. disappointments ... But I think God is like an artist ... Able to take various imperfections and fashion them into something even more exquisite. I have growing confidence, as my faith grows, that even my individual life is in some small ways contributing to a bigger story. OK, maybe a bit part in the overall play, but a part nonetheless that touches others. We all do. God has given us a good world and wants us to enjoy it. Yet we also live in a fallen world full of injustice and evil, something's even of our own hand. Even these are redeemed by God, who makes all things new! Not everything is good to those who seek Him, but everything is capable of becoming transformed!

Just some thoughts on a Wednesday morning ...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I like those thoughts; very profound and quite true.

The examples you give about Paul's thorn in his flesh and that God did not save Christ from death on the cross was very much intended, as you mention, for MUCH good.

It's true; sometimes in order to see the good that God has for us, we have to get through the learning portion of the pain, disappointments, or abandonded dreams we once had to realize His true intent for goodness, and it doesn't always match up to what we desired. At least not at first, but later, after we see His vision then we can become aside Him saying 'Okay God, this is MUCH better that what I had in my mind. Thank you for showing me the way and (like you also mention) transforming my visions into yours.'

Great post!!

Anonymous said...

This was an awesome post -- I often have to remind myself that when things don't go how I planned, or when I'm regretting things in my past, God will use those things for His perfect will. You stated this so eloquently -- thanks so much. I'm going to post a link to this entry on my "memories" blog so I can read it again in the future. :-D

Anonymous said...

Very well said!!! Our ways are not like God's ways. The book of proverbs clearly tells us that and that we can only plan endlessly but God always has the final say.

The Catholic church and her Saints always extol suffering as a way of truly understanding God's will and way. Only when we open ourselves to the sufferings that may come our way from time to time would we learn to see things the way God wants us to see them.

God may be seen as an ironic artist but I choose to see him as a "Magnificent artist". We can only see the topside of the knitting or weaving but He always sees the underside too. And aren't we all filled with so many flaws in our undersides?