I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From whence shall my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber. (Psalm 121:1-3)
Which means of course, that if I recite this little ditty every time I go out into the hills, then I simply cannot encounter any catastrophe. Indeed, I will be rendered immune from any harm, if I merely believe that God will not allow my foot to slip. Conversely, it follows that if I neglect to recite the rhyme, then I deserve all I get and heaven help me because I will undoubtedly fall and break myself in half; and it will be my own fault for not rubbing my rabbit's foot of scripture before I set out on the hill.
I was in just such a predicament yesterday, as I loaded the deer carcass on to my shoulder, slung the rifle across my back, and headed carefully down the very steep, damp, wooded slope back towards the path. One step onto a pretty innocuous-looking piece of moss, and suddenly whoosh! the moss was stripped off the underlying rock, my foot flew into the air, and my right knee then crashed on to the edge of the same rock, complete with the added weight of the deer and my rifle.
There I was, in the middle of nowhere, knee swelling by the second and nauseated by the shock and the pain. All I thought was, "there's no way I am leaving this carcass behind. I want the meat". It took a few minutes to compose myself, and a couple more to get on my feet again and load myself up. I then spent the best part of an hour mincing my way back to the car, before cold-sweating myself back home, in between growls and gritted teeth.
Unfortunately for my ego, the hospital told me there was no fracture. I didn't care at the time as I was stuffed full of Co-codamol (which by the way is a simply marvellous invention. I can scarcely believe that it is not illegal). Sitting here now, though, with a very stiff and sore leg and without the benefit of prescription euphoria, it seems fitting to look at what it means to "stand on God's promises" when circumstances seem to contradict them.
When I was fairly new to all this Christianity stuff, I misinterpreted speakers a number of times, and thought pretty much along the lines I have described above. That is, if I recite a line of the Bible and furrow my brow to "believe" it for myself, then God simply must come through for me. As I became more mature I found out two things: firstly, this is a miserable way of living, full of disappointment, and secondly, there are many out there who actually do advocate such a style of religion. I hope they learn to live with disappointment.
I do not put my faith in one-liners out of the Bible. Anyone can make the Bible, taken out of context, say whatever they like, whatever is most convenient or whatever will support their own point of view. What I find much more useful is reading God's word in order to find out who He really is. Once I know who someone is, then what they do, or how they behave, is of secondary importance. True, there are many promises given in the Bible, but for the main part they are promises about God being faithful to His word, about Him being reliable, loving, righteous, caring. ie. about His character and how that relates to us. This to me, is much more satisfying and reliable than grasping at words that I just want to be true for my daily well-being or pleasure. More importantly, it avoids the extreme difficulty of trying to explain how God protects some, or blesses some, and seemingly inexplicably, not others. If Christians project an image of a "rabbit's foot God" they will always develop an image of a God who is arbitrary in His affections, who has certain favourites and who cannot be relied upon. That is not who He is, and I would dread trying to explain myself to Him when we meet, should I have been projecting such a false image.
I don't put my faith in a God who must always keep me out of trouble, nor do I put it in "words" that I "claim" as my own. I put my faith in the God of scripture, in who He is, as is revealed in His Word. Too often Christians are as superstitious as those who need to get their horoscope fix each day. We pick and choose verses that make us feel good. It is important for us to throw away such childish trinkets and find the Person behind the words. He is completely trustworthy, and as we choose to live in close communion with Him we will know that firm footing and that clear guidance each day.
Even when our knee hurts and the swelling has kicked in!
No comments:
Post a Comment