I am reading A More Christlike Word by Brad Jersak as part of a study group I am attending. I am going to be sharing some of my reflections as I read the book. Here is my 13th reflection:

I used to think that everyone had to believe even this new-to-me way. That it would do them best. And maybe it would. But if God isn’t in a rush, then why do I make the whole world my burden? Maybe to love. But not to change their minds. In due time, if we trust Spirit. So how do I see the process now? I say go on, to the person who insists on a god that barbeques children at their first mistake. The same god they insist hates abortion, mind you. Don’t kill the babies in the womb, but kill them the first second they mess up outside of it? Really?

At any rate, I think of approaching God more like looking at a prism. You can never really take God in all at once. You can never really see all of God from one angle. And yet you still see God as long as you keep looking. So, just look.

So to the people who really believe that God barbeques children at the occurrence of their first mistake, I say at least be intellectually honest about your theology. Follow it all the way to its logical end. Not literally, of course. But really, you can’t just camp out on outlandish statements like that and dismiss any challenges without fully considering them. It either holds water or it doesn’t.

Not that arguing is the way to go. I’m just saying even God lets us wander around and around in the desert as long as we want. God lets us walk off if we want to walk off. That’s not the end of the story, but sometimes we insist on learning the hard way. Sometimes love is not enough – for us. Sometimes healing blind men isn’t enough. Sometimes we insist on a transaction. So God gives us as many opportunities as we insist on in order to try to satisfy ourselves with our self-sufficiency. Sometimes it’s not enough for us that God embraces the ones who have come back home. Or the women who get by how they know to get by when we’re fine with letting them suffer and die. That’s not enough for us. We want revenge. We want praise. We still think there isn’t enough for all of us.

And God lets us go down that road as long as we insist upon it. Never leaving us alone. Always inviting us to come back inside. To join the party. To eat and be full. To lay down the hope for one day. And instead rest in all that is today.