Lent Day 22: Comparing the uncomparable


"To whom will you compare me?
    Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
"My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God"?

Do you not know?
    Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
    and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary
    and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.
-------------------
Isaiah 40:25-31   NIV

At this Bandung coffee factory, the work of skilled insiders
produces a smooth sweet coffee bean,
despite what looks like chaos to outsiders
Our human tendency is to compare ourselves to others. Are we doing better than they are? Worse?
  • Sometimes we pick out our best qualities and compare them to the worst in others, leaving us with an attitude of prideful superiority. 
  • Or we choose our weaknesses and compare them to others' strengths, which leads to personal insecurity. Neither reflects the character of God or honors his goodness to us.
God himself cannot be compared to any person or any gods. When we try to pull him down to our level, to attribute human failure to his nature, we create gods of our own making. "God-in-our-image" is a lie from hell that can happen when:
  • Our misunderstanding is based on our expectations: "If God were really good, he would do XYZ..." 
  • We rebel because we don't understand his infinite wisdom: "God is cruel (or unloving or not trustworthy) because he let my mother die (or I got ill or my business failed)." 
  • We deliberately misunderstand because we don't like God's decisions or plans.
  • We base decisions on our finite knowledge: "This should lead to that. After all, the promises in the Bible say ..." 
  • Our own disobedience or others' actions create messy consequences for which we blame God. "If God really were loving, he would not have let the thieves steal / the murderers kill / the adulterer destroy my marriage, etc." 
In it all, God is unfathomable. Unflappable. Constant. Loving. Good. Kind. Watchful. Wise. Only God fully understands the scope and results of our interactions with him and with other people. Only He can make everything work out for our good.

Doesn't it make more sense to tether our lives to his unchanging Perfection than to try to control life by depending on our own limited understanding?

Popular posts from this blog

Lent Day 23: A life in hiding

Image
" You have been raised up with Christ. So think about things that are in heaven. That is where Christ is. He is sitting at God’s right hand.  Think about things that are in heaven. Don’t think about things that are only on earth.  You died. Now your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:1-3 Where are you hiding? And what are you hiding from? What would happen if you believed God had raised you from the dead and you were focused on heaven? What is you hid behind God' power instead of depending on your own?
Read more

Lent Day 39: Sentenced for your crimes and mine

Image
When the Pharisees and other national leaders take Jesus to the Roman governor, they are looking for the worst punishment they can inflict, a cruel and painful death . Here are the details, from  John 18:28-19:16: Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.  So Pilate came out to them and asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’ ‘If he were not a criminal,’ they replied, ‘we would not have handed him over to you.’ Pilate said, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.’ ‘But we have no right to execute anyone,’ they objected.  This took place to fulfil what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die. > This is hardly a trial that seeks justice. Rather, it is a conspiracy to execute someone who threatens the power base and status quo. The reli...
Read more

Lent Day 31, 2024: Pruning that profits us

Image
It's painful to lose things. Sometimes we have to wave goodbye to a friendship, a job, or a home. Sometimes it seems like God is angry with us or that it's our fault. But Jesus offers a different perspective. Jesus talks about the value of the hard times, when things are pruned away.  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.   He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful (John 15:1-2) ." Sometimes what you leave behind is something that has outgrown its season or taken energy away from your true purpose: a fruitful life. Other times we don't know why  we are being reshaped.  It can hurt.  The writer to the Hebrews notes: " No  discipline  seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11)." Challenge: Think of som...
Read more