Skip to main content

Frustration

  

            “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

 

            It’s said that parents spend the first part of a child’s live in eager anticipation of the baby walking and talking, and the next twenty years wishing they would stop getting in the way, getting into things and just sit down and shut  up. They find themselves frustrated as parents as they try to explain what is obvious to them but their children respond to as if the parents were speaking a foreign language. And it’s no better for the kid who are encouraged to crawl, walk, or talk to take whatever catches their eye, and then spend the rest of their lives being told not to touch, to sit down, and to shut up. And when we start discussing pets, that leads us to a whole new level of frustrations for all concerned.

            It's only reasonable, then, that when it comes to the relationship between God and us, there will be frustration and I’m going to suggest that there is frustration on both sides. But the issue here is that there are two meanings of frustration. The first is the state of being prevented or stopped. The second is a feeling of irritation or dissatisfaction with the situation. When writing about God being frustrated, it is in the second sense. Consider the number of times Jesus scolded people for their “little faith.”

            The other issue is that when we get frustrated in the second sense, we tend to lash out at others. We get cranky. We may even lose control. God doesn’t do that. Even the discipline that He gives us is designed for our long-term benefit.  This sort of frustration on God’s part brings about statements like today’s passage. “…my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” We don’t think like God or act like God.  It’s silly to pretend that we’re on the same level with Him. Even when He stoops to a level we might comprehend a little, it’s still silly to pretend that we’re even near the same level with Him.

            As frustrating as it is, it is also comforting in two senses. The first comfort is the sigh of relief because we can trust that things will eventually turn out well.  And based on that assurance, we can be com-forted (with-strength-ed) to go on.

            This means that the very source of our frustration is our source of comfort. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more