I never promised you are rose garden

 This verse stuck out to me today:

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.”

At first reading, this seems like a very good promise to hold onto. That is until you look at the context. This is Job 22:21 and is said by Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends who was trying to give Job godly advice but missed the mark. Eliphaz’s thought was that Job was being punished because of his sin. Thus, the remedy was to turn back to God so that God will life the suffering from Job’s life. One can see a hint of this thinking after the Israelites returned from exile in Ezra and Nehemiah and fully on display in the Pharisees of the New Testament.

This was contradicted by the first two chapters of the book of Job when it is revealed that Job’s suffering came because he was righteous (not perfect but a God-fearer). Continuing to the end of the book, God rebukes Job’s friends for this bad advice and sets them straight. In regards to the Pharisees, Jesus was very explicit with His frustration with them on this topic.

Looking back at these accounts, we may be tempted to scoff at the friends of Job and the Pharisees and their foolishness but fail to see this same thinking in our own lives. How many times do we get mad at God for not handling things the way we want or letting bad things happen to us? How many times do we pray and not get the answers we want and walk away grumbling? Who of us has not said that a good God would not allow this or that to happen?

This reminded me of a song I remember growing up by Lynn Anderson. The chorus is:

I beg your pardon,

I never promised you are rose garden.

Along with the sunshine

There’s got to be a little rain sometime.

While this is a song about human relationships, this same idea holds try about our relationship with God. One of the brothers in my small group said today, as he often quotes John 16:33:  

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Let’s be clear: God did promise us a life without pain, tears and sadness. However, that is in the new Heavens and the new Earth, not this one. That does not mean we are without hope for this life. He has provided the Holy Spirit to be with us in the midst of the storm that life is throwing our way.

Reading John 6, one sees that Jesus addressed this when his followers were seeking another miracle as they did with the feeding of the crowd. They were so enamored about the gifts that they received, they did not pay attention to the person giving the gifts. So, when the gifts stopped, they rejected the giver. This is true of us many times as well.

When things do not go the way we expect or want, we start grumbling and complaining. We question God and we throw a pity party for ourselves because of all the bad that God has given us. I say this from experience and I know others close to me that have experienced it more than I have. I am not saying that acknowledging the hardship we face is wrong. Nor is feeling exhausted in having to deal with it, especially if it have been a long battle. I am encouraging us to remember the good gifts that God has given us which should point us to the God who is good no matter what we are going through.

In these rough times, often, there are two responses. One is to point to the idea from Job’s friend and argue that God is not holding up His end of the bargain. We could complain and may even leave God behind. The other option is to recognize the idea in the song and John’s verse that we will have struggles but God is with us. Acknowledging our weakness and need of his strength is necessary and God understands when we are honest with Him about why we are struggling. David does this often in the Psalms but most of the time, he returns to praise God and look to Him for shelter and refuge.

May God be our fortress, which provides strength and comfort, in the midst of the circumstances we face in this life while we wait the glorious promised hope of a beautiful life to come for those who believe (John 6:47).

Comments on He Gets Us ads

 

There are two main objections I have seen to the He Gets Us ads that aired during the Super Bowl from the conservative side.

1. They tell a distorted picture of who Jesus is. Often, the complaint is that the ads leave out important parts of Jesus message because nobody gets the full gospel.

2. There is a lot better way to spend those millions of dollars to spread the Gospel.

These are both valid concerns and critiques of this campaign. That being said, from what I have researched, they are trying to reach a different audience than what most of us are used to. They see a vast number of people that are “post-Christian”. This means they have seen what the Christian faith has brought onto society and are having a hard time believing that it is good. Fairly or not, they have plenty of choose from. They can point to the scandals, abuse, power struggles, politics, hate, etc and they see that the people in the church are just as messed up and they are. So, why bother with the church at all. On their website, it asks two questions: “How did the story of Jesus, the worlds greatest love story, get twisted into a tool to judge, harm, and divide?  How do we remind people the story of Jesus belongs to everyone?”

In light of those two questions, the goal of the ads is not to tell the Gospel per se because many will tune it out. The goal is to show that Jesus values all people. He does not value you because of what you stand for or against. He does not value you because of what you can do for the church. HE VALUES YOU BECAUSE HE MADE YOU!!!

With that in mind, the goal of the first critique is not the initial goal of this ad campaign. Yes, eventually, the goal is to lead them to Christ but there is lots of work to be done before some people are ready for that. So, this is a step to give a different perspective of Jesus than they are seeing through the mainstream or social media.

As far as better ways to spend the money, if and when we are entrusted with how to spend that kind of money or if we are asked by a friend for advice on spending the money, then we can tell and show how we would spend it. I am sure there are about as many ways to spend money as there are people being asked. The reason I bring this up is that complaining on how someone spends their money yields little fruit. The fact is that it is their money and these ads are shown during the Super Bowl and other times during the year no matter how loud we complain about them. Is there another way to view them?

Let’s look at this from someone who those ads are reaching. If you are complaining about the ads and how they are awful because of this or that, would someone who has a bad impression of Christians to begin with consider talking with you about anything in the ad that resonated with them or would they see that you are reaffirming all of the negative stereotypes they have about Christians in the first place?

For me, like them or not and agree with them or have convictions against them, they are “conversation starters” that we can use to engage with people about who Christ is. However, our reaction to them can either open doors to communication or they can close them real quick. Christians need to be ready to use them to show that everyone has value and Jesus welcomes everyone. Unfortunately, the church has had a long history of being very judgmental, harmful and divisive, which is the reason for this ad campaign. Our reaction can either reinforce those impressions or help to tear them down and show them a different view of the love of Jesus then they see elsewhere. Which of those would you rather see?