creator – Hope Walking

What God Thinks

Do you care what God thinks? Do you believe the United States Congress should care what God thinks?

Last month a telling dialogue between two members of Congress took place in the House of Representatives.

A Representative from Florida had said, “ We are seeing the consequences of rejecting God here in our country today.”

To which a Representative from New York declared, “What any religious tradition describes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.”

From an historical viewpoint this is an amazing statement since our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, states its authority rests on “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” It also says citizens “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” The justification for our nation’s very existence falls if we are not concerned with the will of God.

When Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…Your will be done,” he was telling us to approach God with awe, and to be concerned about the will of our Father.

The word hallowed in the original Greek is hagiazo, which means to reverence and honor. This is different from the word sacred, which means the person or object has holiness that is inherent and apart from the judgement of any person.

What Jesus is asking us to do at the beginning of our prayers is to acknowledge the sacredness of the Father and act accordingly.

So what does that mean in our everyday life? We will map this out as we continue through the rest of the Lord’s prayer, but overall it means to give God honor by concerning ourselves with his will for us and for his world.

We have in the past months spent much time showing the goodness and closeness of our Father in Heaven. Now we will talk about acting as if we believe this.

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Pray Like This…..”Your”

I tell my granddaughter brilliant profound things. She smiles, laughs, and walks away. Of course she does; she is 20 months old. She doesn’t understand what I am trying to say.

Do you believe God understands what you are trying to say?

The first important thing when we speak is to know who we’re talking to. When we pray your (your kingdom come; your will be done) what do we think this you is like?

Let’s stop now to consider who we believe God is. Get two pieces of paper and a pen. At the top of one sheet write “God” and at the top of the other sheet write “Jesus.” Begin with God and write a list of all the words you can think of that describe God. Take a couple minutes to do this. Then turn over that sheet, take your second sheet and write a list of words that describe Jesus.

STOP! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE YOUR TWO LISTS.

Now take your two lists and put them side by side. How are the words you chose for God different than the ones you chose for Jesus? How are they the same? Whom are you more comfortable praying to? If your picture of God is very different from your picture of Jesus, why might that be?

In the Gospel of John you have read this:

In the beginning was the Word….and the Word was God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The Creator of the universe put on skin just like your skin and lived with folks just like us. He grew up in a town with neighbors who were nasty or nice. He had favorite foods and danced with friends to music they played. He had parents who loved him and younger brothers who thought he was crazy. He walked on rough roads that tired his feet. The bright sun made him squint and burned his cheeks. He grieved the deaths of his family and friends. He was disappointed when those he trusted let him down. He knows what it is like to be in skin like yours.

When you pray, God understands what you are trying to say.

I hope you will keep thinking about who God is. And I hope you will sign up to follow my blog, because I will be back next week ……..

Who Grinched Greta?

Greta Thunberg’s image on the cover of Time Magazine is soft and lovely. She is Time’s 2019 Person of the Year. But that image is not the one we tend to recall when we hear her name. The lasting image of adolescent Greta is her angry-to-the-point-of-tears face twisted with anguish and frustration.

“How dare you!” she roared at the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit in September, blaming every adult who ever turned over the ignition in their car. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”

What comes to mind is Dr. Suess’s green Grinch going through Whoville greedily taking everything that was there to make children like Greta happy and healthy. Is that what we did?

Let’s put aside the debate on fossil fuels and ask, “Are we the grinches that took the carefree bliss of childhood from Greta?” I don’t think so.

The true story of Greta’s rise to fame on the world scene is not the one we have been told. But what I need to point out here is that Time Magazine’s article about Greta tells us she was a severely depressed 11-year old who almost totally stopped speaking and eating because she was so sad about the world being threatened by climate change. It’s heartbreaking that any 11-year old would feel so hopeless.

Which brings me to a very interesting recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Erica Komisar, a child and family therapist. The title of the article was “Don’t Believe in God? Lie to Your Children.” Komisar makes the case that the rise of depression and anxiety among children and adolescents is caused by a declining interest in religion: “Nihilism is fertilizer for anxiety and depression…… The belief in God — in a protective and guiding figure to rely on when times are tough — is one of the best kinds of support for kids in an increasingly pessimistic world.”

The Grinch that stole Greta’s childhood was atheist, materialist, nihilistic thinking. You’re a mean one Mr. Nietzsche.

According to Time, Greta was eight when she first heard of catastrophic global climate change but assumed adults, “the politicians,” would take care of it. However, by age eleven she realized no one was taking charge and she became deeply depressed. Her elders could not offer her any hope. “The buck stopped,” and no one was there.

But Someone is there! All we know about the earth and the universe points to a designer. Science reveals an amazingly fine-tuned universe that perfectly supports life on earth. Exploration into our cells reveals stunning machines and systems that give us life. Just look around at the earth and up at heavens and see beauty and purpose from a creator who cares about us.

We need to wisely care for our world, but we don’t need to panic. The Creator cares so deeply about us that he stepped into a human body and lived with us. Jesus promises never to stop caring for us.

I would like to spend a day with Greta, or with any child frightened by climate doom. I would show her all the ways God designed her and her world for life and for love. I would invite her to trust and love her creator back.

And I would end the day sitting around a campfire singing “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.”

For indeed He does.