God, Unpredictable
“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you”.
- Mr. B in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
We like to have it all figured out. Planned. Predicted. Mapped out inside out. From fortune tellers to weather forecasts, we generally don’t like surprises. We are obsessed about being comfortable in knowing everything about everything. We like things to be predictable. Safe. Familiar. It is in our human nature. The problem is, this preference often means that we also want to have God all figured out. And safe. And predictable.
And He happens to be anything but.
I believe we want God to be predictable, first of all, because that is our way of attempting to define Him and our relation to Him. In part this is what organized religion is all about. Unfortunately, this often means that we – whether we realize it or not – prefer to turn Him into a ‘system’ or even a faceless, impersonal ‘force’ that we can scientifically classify and study. We think that if we can always ‘systematically’ figure Him out we can always put one and one together with Him and predictably end up with two. We put Him in a box and claim that He, our Creator, cannot be whatever is outside that ‘box’. We want Him to be domesticated enough for us to manipulate through our religious and legal systems.
But think about it. God is not predictable. His relationship with us is not predictable. Think about the many apparent ‘contradictions’ in the character of God in the Bible. How could the God who commanded ‘You shall not murder’ command the massacre of an entire city, including women and children? How could the God who forbade adultery be the same One who told Hosea to marry a prostitute? How could the God who led Israel into so many bloody wars in the Old Testament be the same God who became human and commanded us to love our enemies in the New? How could an omniscient God be said to ‘regret’ His plans when His followers humbly pleaded with Him?
These contradictions are often pointed out by critics of Christianity as an evidence that our God is either not omnipotent, inconsistent or altogether nonexistent. Most Christians avoid the issue as much as possible in fear of having their faith questioned. But these apparent ‘contradictions’, far from proving God’s nonexistence, actually show us one important aspect of His being: that He is a living, personal Being, as opposed to an impersonal Force (or system). By implication, this also means that His relationship with us is also not a systematic one but a personal one.
This is not to say that God is always changing His mind or is unprincipled. Understand that this argument is not intended to be relativistic or liberal by any means. God never changes because He is perfect. For example, His nature is, has been and always will be Love. His character has always been and will always be just and holy. Whatever His actions have been, they have always been motivated by these same things. God’s nature, character, will and law have never and will never change. But while this is so, as a living Person God is also flexible, emotional and wise enough to choose to make different decisions in different situations – while always still being consistent with His nature. In fact, we generally do the same thing because we were created in His image. The grace that He shows in our redemption through Jesus’ sacrifice is a perfect example of this fact. His holiness, divine law and just character declare that our sins have to be punished, but His love and merciful nature made Him choose to punish Christ instead of us.
Although we often prefer God to be safe and predictable enough to understand, such a domesticated deity cannot possibly be powerful or wise enough to save us. God’s nature is also unpredictable to us because He is more than we can fully grasp. We are finite; He is infinite. His thoughts are as far from ours as heaven is from the earth. Thus, while His nature and will never change, we cannot even begin to completely predict, classify, simplify or systematize them. It is foolish for us, the clay that we are, to pretend that we can scientifically understand the hands of the Potter that shapes us, or why He shapes us the way He does.
We need to understand that a real relation to God is not something that we study as a predictable (and scientific) system. It is something that we learn in relationship with a Person that is often as unpredictable as the wind (but always good). God is not safe or predictable, but if one thing is predictable about Him, it is that He is unpredictably loving and just. And that, I would say, is something to be thankful for.
- Mr. B in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.
We like to have it all figured out. Planned. Predicted. Mapped out inside out. From fortune tellers to weather forecasts, we generally don’t like surprises. We are obsessed about being comfortable in knowing everything about everything. We like things to be predictable. Safe. Familiar. It is in our human nature. The problem is, this preference often means that we also want to have God all figured out. And safe. And predictable.
And He happens to be anything but.
I believe we want God to be predictable, first of all, because that is our way of attempting to define Him and our relation to Him. In part this is what organized religion is all about. Unfortunately, this often means that we – whether we realize it or not – prefer to turn Him into a ‘system’ or even a faceless, impersonal ‘force’ that we can scientifically classify and study. We think that if we can always ‘systematically’ figure Him out we can always put one and one together with Him and predictably end up with two. We put Him in a box and claim that He, our Creator, cannot be whatever is outside that ‘box’. We want Him to be domesticated enough for us to manipulate through our religious and legal systems.
But think about it. God is not predictable. His relationship with us is not predictable. Think about the many apparent ‘contradictions’ in the character of God in the Bible. How could the God who commanded ‘You shall not murder’ command the massacre of an entire city, including women and children? How could the God who forbade adultery be the same One who told Hosea to marry a prostitute? How could the God who led Israel into so many bloody wars in the Old Testament be the same God who became human and commanded us to love our enemies in the New? How could an omniscient God be said to ‘regret’ His plans when His followers humbly pleaded with Him?
These contradictions are often pointed out by critics of Christianity as an evidence that our God is either not omnipotent, inconsistent or altogether nonexistent. Most Christians avoid the issue as much as possible in fear of having their faith questioned. But these apparent ‘contradictions’, far from proving God’s nonexistence, actually show us one important aspect of His being: that He is a living, personal Being, as opposed to an impersonal Force (or system). By implication, this also means that His relationship with us is also not a systematic one but a personal one.
This is not to say that God is always changing His mind or is unprincipled. Understand that this argument is not intended to be relativistic or liberal by any means. God never changes because He is perfect. For example, His nature is, has been and always will be Love. His character has always been and will always be just and holy. Whatever His actions have been, they have always been motivated by these same things. God’s nature, character, will and law have never and will never change. But while this is so, as a living Person God is also flexible, emotional and wise enough to choose to make different decisions in different situations – while always still being consistent with His nature. In fact, we generally do the same thing because we were created in His image. The grace that He shows in our redemption through Jesus’ sacrifice is a perfect example of this fact. His holiness, divine law and just character declare that our sins have to be punished, but His love and merciful nature made Him choose to punish Christ instead of us.
Although we often prefer God to be safe and predictable enough to understand, such a domesticated deity cannot possibly be powerful or wise enough to save us. God’s nature is also unpredictable to us because He is more than we can fully grasp. We are finite; He is infinite. His thoughts are as far from ours as heaven is from the earth. Thus, while His nature and will never change, we cannot even begin to completely predict, classify, simplify or systematize them. It is foolish for us, the clay that we are, to pretend that we can scientifically understand the hands of the Potter that shapes us, or why He shapes us the way He does.
We need to understand that a real relation to God is not something that we study as a predictable (and scientific) system. It is something that we learn in relationship with a Person that is often as unpredictable as the wind (but always good). God is not safe or predictable, but if one thing is predictable about Him, it is that He is unpredictably loving and just. And that, I would say, is something to be thankful for.
posted by jct at 6:37 AM
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